At least two people were killed and six injured when a car exploded in the center of Russia’s city of Vladikavkaz, near war-torn Chechnya. The car blew up shortly after 5 p.m. on Gorky street, some 200 meters from the central market in the regional hub, as a truck with soldiers drove by, according to reports and witnesses. Russia’s emergencies ministry in Moscow said two people were killed and six injured. According to preliminary reports, a woman passerby and a soldier were among the dead. It was not immediately clear what caused the blast.
| Y'think it mighta been a bomb, Holmes? |
A spokesman for the interior ministry of North Ossetia, the republic where Vladikavkaz is located, said the explosion could have been caused by a gas canister. "According to preliminary interior ministry data, the car’s gas canister blew up, although we are looking into other possibilities," the ITAR-TASS news agency quoted Ismel Shaov as saying. An unnamed source in the ministry told the news agency that the explosion was likely caused by a bomb.
| That'd be my guess, but I'm not there... |
Regional interior ministry officials said the blast was equivalent to two kilograms of TNT. But RIA Novosti quoted police on the scene at putting this figure at 400 grams of TNT.
| One of the perils of the metric system, I guess... |
Interior ministry’s Shaov also said the blast could have been directed at the Gamid Bank, in front of which it occurred. He said that a parked car had exploded in front of the bank two years ago, RIA reported. The explosion ripped one car in half and burned three nearby vehicles. |