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Top Caucasus official says police on trail of Vladikavkaz bombers (Update 5)

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The Kremlin's special envoy to the North Caucasus said on Thursday that investigators were on the trail of those involved in the terrorist attack in the southern Russian city of Vladikavkaz.

The Kremlin's special envoy to the North Caucasus said on Thursday that investigators were on the trail of those involved in the terrorist attack in the southern Russian city of Vladikavkaz.

At least 17 people were killed and 112 injured in a suicide car bombing in Vladikavkaz, the capital of North Ossetia. Local officials say 123 were injured, with 10 in critical condition.

The blast occurred near the city's central market around midday, police said.

The bomber was identified as a man named Archiyev, and the car owner has been detained.

The bombing is the latest in a series of terrorist attacks that have rocked the troubled North Caucasus in recent weeks, including a suicide attack on a military camp in Dagestan.

"There are leads going to people involved in this incident," Alexander Khloponin said.

President Dmitry Medvedev said the culprits will be punished.

"We will do our best to track down the beasts who committed this terrorist act against ordinary people, a heinous terrorist act," he said.

"We will do everything to find them and punish them in accordance with our country's law, and destroy them if they offer resistance," he added.

The head of the Federal Security Service, Alexander Bortnikov, arrived in Vladikavkaz on Thursday evening to oversee the investigation into the bombing.

Relatives of those killed in the incident will receive 1 million rubles ($33,000) in compensation, while those injured will receive between 200,000 rubles ($6,500) and 400,000 rubles ($13,000), the government said.

The Vladikavkaz market has been the target of two earlier terrorist attacks.

In 1999, an explosion killed 55 people and injured 300 others. In 2008, 12 people were killed and over 40 injured in a bus bombing.

Terrorist attacks are common in Russia's North Caucasus republics, including Dagestan and Chechnya, but most target security forces or officials. The Russian government has vowed to clamp down on militant groups while stepping up efforts to boost the local economies.

VLADIKAVKAZ, September 9 (RIA Novosti) 

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