ROSTOV-ON-DON, October 24 (RIA Novosti) - Police have discovered a explosives in a shopping mall in the southern Russian city of Nazran, an Interior Ministry spokesman from the North Caucasus republic of Ingushetia said on Saturday.

Employees and shoppers have been evacuated from the Kovcheg shopping mall in the center of the city and police are attempting to defuse the bomb.

"At about 12:00 pm [GMT 08.00] information was received that an odd device, a possible bomb, was discovered in the Kovcheg shopping mall in Nazran," the spokesman said.

Russia's mainly Muslim North Caucasus republics, especially Chechnya, Dagestan and Ingushetia, have seen an upsurge of militant violence this year, with frequent attacks on police and officials.