Fourteen killed in bomb explosion

At least 14 people were killed and more than 70 were wounded in three bomb blasts this morning in southern Russia, police officials said.

Twelve people were killed and 72 were wounded when a bomb exploded near the entrance of an farmers’ market in the city of Mineralnye Vody, a spokesman for the city Interior Ministry said.

A simultaneous blast in the nearby town of Yessentuki, in the Stavropol region, injured 12, police officials said, and two Interior Ministry servicemen were killed in a third explosion in the Karachayevo-Cherkessia region.

Mineralnye Vody, Yessentuki and Karachayevo-Cherkessia are northwest of the breakaway republic of Chechnya.

Two Interior Ministry inspectors were killed when explosives found in a car on a highway in the Karachayevo-Cherkessia region detonated, a ministry spokesman said.

In the town of Yessentuki, 12 people were in injured when a bomb exploded in the entrance of the road police department, an Interior Ministry official said.

The three blasts occurred within minutes of each other at 10am, the officials said.

President Vladimir Putin was informed of the explosion during his regular meeting with top officials in the Kremlin, spokesman Sergei Yastrzhhembsky’s office said.

An office spokesman said one person had been held in Mineralnye Vody.