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Grozny: Suicide bombing hits Chechen capital | Grozny: Suicide bombing hits Chechen capital |
(about 3 hours later) | |
Five police officers have been killed and at least eight other people hurt in a suicide attack in the Chechen capital Grozny, Russian officials say. | |
The attack took place outside a hall where a concert marking Grozny's City Day was about to take place. | The attack took place outside a hall where a concert marking Grozny's City Day was about to take place. |
An interior ministry statement said police were searching a "suspicious" young man when he detonated a device. | |
Grozny was ravaged by two wars between Russia and Chechen separatists but has been relatively calm in recent years. | Grozny was ravaged by two wars between Russia and Chechen separatists but has been relatively calm in recent years. |
The Russian statement said that police officers on duty at the event "noticed a suspicious young man near metal detectors set up at the concert hall". | The Russian statement said that police officers on duty at the event "noticed a suspicious young man near metal detectors set up at the concert hall". |
"When the police decided to search him and establish his identity, the man blew himself up," it said. | "When the police decided to search him and establish his identity, the man blew himself up," it said. |
There has been no information about any civilian casualties. | There has been no information about any civilian casualties. |
Analysis: Sarah Rainsford, BBC Moscow correspondent | |
This was a high-profile and symbolic target. | |
This year, Grozny City Day celebrations coincide with the birthday of Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov. | |
He recently asserted that extremist Islamic insurgents - who carried out major bomb attacks in Russia in the run-up to the Winter Olympics - were no longer a threat in Chechnya, and no longer recruiting. | |
Mr Kadyrov claimed there were just "5 to 12 bandits" left in the mountains. | |
The southern Russian republic of Chechnya saw two, brutal separatist wars in the 1990s that gradually morphed into a fight for an Islamic state in the region which is led by a group calling itself the "Caucasus Emirate". | |
This is the first major attack since the insurgents' long-time leader, Doku Umarov, was killed last year. | |
The bomber was identified as 19-year-old Opti Mudarov, a resident of Grozny. | |
The ministry said he had disappeared two months ago and had had no contact with his family since then. | |
It added that Russian Interior Minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev was preparing to decorate the police officers involved for preventing what it described as a major terrorist act. | |
"They gave their lives to save thousands of people who had come to the concert," Itar-Tass news agency quoted the ministry as saying. | "They gave their lives to save thousands of people who had come to the concert," Itar-Tass news agency quoted the ministry as saying. |
Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov said the bomber "wanted to ruin people's joy on their day of celebration, but he has not succeeded". |