Russian market death toll rises to nine

Doctors say at least nine people are dead after an explosion at a market in Russia.

Staff at Vladikavkaz hospitals say 36 people have been injured in the city.

The device was planted at a stall selling flowers, NTV television reports.

Regional Interior Minister Kazbek Dazntiyev said: "It was a terrorist act."

According to Russian Interior Ministry officials in Moscow, the bomb had been placed inside an iron pipe used as a barrier to allow motor vehicles in and out of the market, the ITAR-Tass news agency reports.

Vladimir Kravchenko, head of the northern Caucasus prosecutor's office, says an investigation has been opened into charges of terrorism and murder.