Car bomb blast kills three police officers in Russia

A car bomb exploded near a police vehicle in Russia’s troubled North Caucasus today, killing at least three police officers, witnesses and Russian media reports said.

The blast occurred in the centre of Nazran, the main city in the violence-plagued Ingushetia region.

The bodies of three people, apparently policemen, could be seen on the ground before the area was cordoned off, and a fourth person was rushed from the scene in an ambulance.

Citing local police, the RIA-Novosti news agency reported that four policemen were killed and said the car that blew up was laden with explosives. Interfax reported that three people were killed and two others injured, also citing law enforcement officials.

Witnesses said a police vehicle stopped near a parked car and officers emerged, apparently to try to determine to whom the car belonged, and the car exploded as the police were getting back in their vehicle.

Attacks on law enforcement authorities are common in Ingushetia and are usually attributed to Ingush militants or rebels from neighbouring Chechnya, the site of two devastating wars since 1994 pitting government forces against separatist rebels who have increasingly espoused militant Islamic ideology.