Act
of Terror in Chechnya Kills 40 People
Source:
RIA Novosti
MOSCOW, MAY
12, 2003 –The Chechen Prosecutor’s Office has reported that the
act of terror in the Znamenskoye village killed 40 people, RIA
Novosti learned in the Chechen Prosecutor’s Office.
Information
concerning the number of those wounded is currently being checked,
the Prosecutor’s Office stated.
According
to preliminary estimates, as many as 100 people may have been
wounded.
So far, the
rescuers have managed to extract two dead bodies and two living
people from under the debris, the Prosecutor’s Office informed.
According
to experts, a heavy Ural truck that was blown up near the administrative
buildings in the Znamenskoye village was loaded with explosives.
The explosion force was equivalent to over a ton of TNT.
The Prosecutor’s
Office believes the terrorist act in the Nadterechny district
is comparable to the one committed by terrorists near the House
of Government in Chechnya last December.
On Monday
morning, a car loaded with explosives entered the territory where
administrative buildings were located. A crater 16 meters in diameter
and two meters deep was left at the site of the explosion, RIA
Novosti quoted Head of the Nadterechny District Administration
Sultan Akhmetkhanov as saying.
The explosion
completely ruined 8 dwelling houses and partly destroyed the building
of the Federal Security Department of the Nadterechny district
and the local administration.
An operative
investigation group headed by Chechnya’s prosecutor Mr Kravchenko
is currently working at the site. Russian Deputy Prosecutor General
Sergei Fridinsky is also expected to arrive. Deputy presidential
plenipotentiaries in Russia’s Southern federal district have left
for the scene of the accident as well.
According
to the investigation group’s preliminary information, the terrorists
targeted at the building of the Federal Security Service and the
Nadterechny district administration building.