Moscow - Eight people were killed and at least 22 injured in two suicide bombings in the Chenchen capital Grozny late Tuesday in the worst terrorist attack in the Caucasus in almost two years, officials in the volatile Russian region said Wednesday.
Six police officers, an government employee and a civilian were among the dead, the Interfax news agency reported. Five of the injured, among them civilians and police officers, were in a serious condition, media reports said.
The first attack took place near a police station in the Leninsky district. The bomber detonated his explosives when police moved to apprehend him, law enforcement officials were quoted by Interfax as saying.
The second suicide bomber struck an hour later, blowing himself up in the middle of a crowd of the crowd gathered at the scene of first attack, the Chechen Interior Ministry said.
According to Russian media, the bombers were brothers.
“Those who sent the bandits and those who set off the bomb lack anything sacred either in religion or nationality,” Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov said, according to Interfax.
He promised government support to survivors and “vengeance” against militants who, he said, had been able to execute the attack because of a loosening of anti-terrorism measures in the region.
“The moment one announces the possibility of talks and less (civic) restrictions... the blood of innocent civilians begins to flow,” Kadyrov said.
The last major suicide bombing in the Caucasus took place in a crowded market in the city of Vladikavkaz, North Ossetia-Alania, in September 2010. At least 17 people were killed and more than 160 were injured in the attack.
Since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the North Caucasus has been the scene of conflict, driven mostly by Islamist separatists. - Sapa-dpa