Three dead in Russian market blasts

MOSCOW, Russia -- At least three people have been killed and 15 others wounded after two explosions rocked the southern Russian town of Pyatigorsk.

A spokeswoman for the Emergencies Ministry said the two blasts occurred almost simultaneously in the town in Russia's troubled North Caucasus region, which includes rebel Chechnya.

Russia's Interfax news agency said one explosion was caused by a car bomb while another blast tore through the meat section of a market in the town on Friday.

Security officials have previously blamed bomb attacks in the south of Russia to unrest in Chechnya, where separatist rebels have been fighting the Russian army for more than a year.

Pyatigorsk was the site of a series of bomb blasts in October which killed at least two people and injured around 20 others.

Earlier this week a senior city official and his daughter were injured after their car exploded in St. Petersburg.

An Emergencies Ministry spokesman said Monday's explosion went off as Sergei Alyoshin, deputy administration head of a central district in Russia's second city, was getting into his car. His daughter was already inside the vehicle.

In September, an explosion in a market in the central Russian town of Ryazan, 200 kilometres (120 miles) south of Moscow, killed three people and injured at least three others.

A second explosion tore through a shop in central St Petersberg just hours later, although no one was injured.

In August, a bomb in a crowded underground passageway in Moscow killed 12 people and wounded more than 100.

The bombing of an apartment block in Buinaksk, southern Russia, last year killed 64 people.

Authorities blamed Chechen rebels for the bombing along with three other apartment explosions in September 1999 which killed a total of about 300 people and resulted in Russian forces moving into Chechnya.

Reuters contributed to this report.

Russian official injured in blast
December 4, 2000
Russian troops killed in Chechen cafe bomb
October 29, 2000
Press blames blast on Chechen rebels
August 9, 2000
History of bomb attacks in Russia
August 8, 2000
Blast rocks apartment building in southern Russia
September 16, 1999
Moscow police detain suspects in deadly blast
September 14, 1999

Russian Government
Pyatigorsk

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