Six people were killed and another 21 severely injured on Monday when a powerful explosion occurred near Grozny’s central market, ripping apart a municipal bus as it drove by, local pro-Moscow officials told Interfax.
It was unclear whether the blast in the Chechen capital was caused by a bomb or a landmine.
Most of the victims were passengers on municipal bus number seven which was driving past, said pro-Russian Chechen interior ministry Colonel Said-Selim Peshkhoyev. He did not say whether the dead and wounded were civilians.
Investigators from the prosecutor’s office, the Russian FSB intelligence agency and the Chechen interior ministry arrived at the scene but no suspects in the attack have been arrested, Peshkhoyev said.
Russian troops stormed into separatist Chechnya in October 1999 in what Moscow termed an anti-terrorist operation that has since unraveled into a brutal guerrilla war with daily casualties on the rebel and federal side.
Russia has so far lost around 4 500 troops in the conflict, according to its own figures. Anti-war groups believe the true figure is up to three times higher. – Sapa-AFP