32 killed in Grozny blasts
GROZNY, Chechnya --Two powerful explosions have rocked the Chechen capital of Grozny, wrecking a major pro-Kremlin government building and killing at least 32 people, the Chechen Interior Ministry said.
Ministry officials said the death toll was at least 32 and that another 60 people were wounded.
Reports indicated the explosions may have been caused by a pair of suicide bombers in two vehicles laden with a ton of explosives.
Televised footage showed the government building wrecked, with stunned and bleeding people walking amid the rubble.
Others were being dragged by their hands and feet, while bloodied soldiers tried to establish order, The Associated Press said.
Chechen Interior Minister Ruslan Tsakayev told Interfax the bombs were contained in a truck and an off-road vehicle that broke into the compound, AP said.
The truck apparently got through three checkpoints before slamming a fence surrounding the government building, officials said.
ITAR-Tass quoted a source in the Chechen prosecutor's office as saying that at least 25 people were killed, presumably including the two drivers, the AP said.
The news agency also quoted the Grozny ambulance service as saying that about 20 were killed and 40 wounded, while Rossiya state television said that 30 had been killed and up to 50 wounded, AP reported.
Chechen prosecutor Valery Kravchenko said 14 bodies had been found and that more were feared buried under the rubble, AP said.
There have been no claims of responsibility so far.
The explosions occurred at 1:30 p.m. local time about 30 seconds apart, CNN Moscow Bureau Chief Jill Dougherty said.
"There is quite a lot of devastation, and President (Vladimir) Putin has been informed," Dougherty said.
TVS television said two vehicles blew up next to the building, each with one man inside. The blasts left a crater of about 5-7 metres (15-20 feet) in diameter in front of the building, TVS said.
Interfax said one blast occurred inside the building and the other nearby.
Neither the head of the Chechen administration, Akhmad Kadyrov, nor his deputy Mikhail Babich were in the building, NTV said.
However, many other Chechen government workers were there.
The building, which houses the pro-Kremlin administration in Grozny, is one of the few in the capital to have been rebuilt after Russian troops seized the capital in 2000.
The explosions undercut Russia's position that the situation in Chechnya is slowly returning to normal, Dougherty said.
The Russian military, which has been fighting separatists in Chechnya for almost a decade, stepped up operations in the region after gunmen seized a Moscow theater in October.
Almost 700 hostages were taken in that incident, of which 128 died during the operation to free them.
Russia first occupied Chechnya in 1994, three years after the breakaway republic declared its independence.
The Russians withdrew in 1996 after Chechen rebels fought the Russian military to a draw. But the military returned in October 1999, after Chechen rebels invaded the neighbouring Russian republic of Dagestan.
Ethnic Chechens are mainly Muslim, having adopted Islam when the area was part of the Ottoman Empire.
