MOSCOW, August 28 (RIA Novosti) - Russia's interior minister ordered on Friday extra security measures in troubled regions of the North Caucasus ahead of the start of the school year.

Rashid Nurgaliyev told a ministerial meeting that any attempts to destabilize the situation and disrupt celebrations planned for September 1, the first day of school, must be prevented.

"The current academic year is beginning amid difficult conditions, not only due to the economic situation in the country and in the world as a whole, but due to the surge in activity of terrorist groups in the North Caucasus," he said.

The most severe terrorist attack in the region's history came on the first day of school in the South Ossetian town of Beslan five years ago. Terrorists held School No. 1 in a three-day siege, killing at least 334 people, including 186 children.

Nurgaliyev said that as of July this year, around 5,000 educational establishments in Russia had no security guards.

The North Caucasus region has seen a rise in violence in recent months. The republic of Ingushetia saw its worst terrorist attack in years earlier in August, when a suicide bomber in a truck killed at least 20 police officers. On Tuesday, a suicide bomber killed three officers at a carwash in a Chechen village.