CROWDS of mourners streamed to a village in the Chechen foothills yesterday to bury President Akhmad Kadyrov, killed by a bomb in Chechnya’s capital, and his widely-feared son was named a top official in the republic hours later.

Thousands of mourners flocked to Chechen President Akhmad Kadyrov’s native village for his funeral today, a day after the Moscow-backed leader was killed by a bomb blast that cast Russia’s efforts to stabilise and control the war-ravaged region into chaos.

Russian president Vladimir Putin has vowed retribution after an explosion ripped through a stadium in the Chechnya’s capital during a Victory Day parade, killing its president Akhmad Kadyrov.

Chechen President Akhmad Kadyrov was among at least 20 people killed in a bomb blast at a Grozny stadium where he was attending Victory Day observances, officials said.

A photographer for the Reuters news agency was among those killed in the Chechnya explosion.