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Death toll hits 19, about 80 injured in south Russia blast

© RIA Novosti . Said GutsievINGUSHETIA
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The number of dead from Monday's powerful explosion that rocked the center of Nazran, Ingushetia's largest city, has reached 19, with 79 injured, an official at the republic's Health Ministry said.

ROSTOV-ON-DON, August 17 (RIA Novosti) - The number of dead from Monday's powerful explosion that rocked the center of Nazran, Ingushetia's largest city, has reached 19, with 79 injured, an official at the republic's Health Ministry said.

According to police, the blast occurred near the city's police headquarters early Monday morning, and may have been caused by a car bomb.

"At about 09:08 a.m. Moscow time [05:08 GMT] a yellow GAZelle truck broke through a gate at a check point near the building. A powerful explosion followed shortly after that," a local investigator told RIA Novosti.

Earlier it was reported that 12 people had died with between 58 and 65 injured, including at least nine children.

At least four people have been taken to hospitals in neighboring North Ossetia as medical staff in Nazran struggle to cope with the influx of casualties.

Reports from the scene say the fire is now under control. More than 80 firefighters were involved in tackling the blaze which has been further complicated by exploding ammunition in the weapons store.

"The fire virtually destroyed the building. There may still be people in the debris," an emergencies ministry spokesman told RIA Novosti, adding that the painstaking work of shifting through the rubble would continue into the evening.

Russia's mainly Muslim North Caucasus regions have seen a rise in violence in recent months. Attacks on police, officials and troops have been reported almost daily in Ingushetia and neighboring Dagestan that border Chechnya, which saw two separatist wars in the late 1990s-early 2000s.

Ingushetia's construction minister was gunned down in his office last Wednesday; the murder followed the killing of a Supreme Court judge and the attempted assassination of the republic's president, Yunus-Bek Yevkurov, in late June. Last month the Ingush forensic chief was also gunned down.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has called the increased terrorist activity in the Caucasus "an attempt to destabilize the situation in the region."

 

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