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.