Blast rocks southern Russian town

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Posted 7:43AM on Thursday, May 9, 2002

KASPIISK, RUSSIA - A remote-controlled mine exploded along the main street of a southern Russian town near Chechnya on Thursday, killing at least 20 people and injuring about 100 during celebrations marking the Allied victory over the Nazis. In a separate attack, rebels fired grenade launchers at a stadium in Grozny, Chechnya where Victory Day celebrations were being held, seriously injuring one policeman. The victims in the mine attack included children, veterans and musicians in a military band marching down Lenin Street in the Caspian Sea port of Kaspiisk. A mangled drum heaped with flowers lay next to abandoned horns and an empty boot in footage shown on NTV television. Streams of blood trickled down the pocked, tree-lined road. The blast occurred as the procession was headed toward a cemetery to lay wreaths at the town's Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Thursday's attacks came while Russia was in a buoyant, patriotic mood thanks to parades and celebrations nationwide to mark Victory Day, one of Russia's biggest holidays. Thousands of troops marched across Red Square past Russian President Vladimir Putin and aging World War II veterans while triumphant music and films filled the airwaves and streets were blanketed in building-size banners. After giving a speech during the Red Square parade, Putin convened an emergency meeting of his top law enforcement and defense officials. ``I think there are few people who doubt that this was a terrorist act,'' Putin said of the Kaspiisk attack. ``A crime of such form and such severity cannot but arouse emotions. ... But emotions shouldn't prevent us from conducting a full investigation, and finding and punishing the criminals.'' The head of the Dagestan state council, Magomedali Magomedov, told reporters in Kaspiisk that at least 20 people were killed and 100 injured. The center of Kaspiisk was cordoned off and swarming with security agents, police, and rescue workers. Anti-mine experts were searching for other mines in the area. NTV television reported that the city's hospital was already overflowing with injured. Kaspiisk is just south of the capital of the Dagestan region, Makhachkala. The state sees frequent small-scale bombings and other unrest, often spillover violence from the war in the adjacent breakaway province of Chechnya. In November 1996, a huge bomb killed 68 people in Kaspiisk when it tore through an apartment building housing Russian border guards. The perpetrators were never found, but many blamed Chechen rebels. Kaspiisk, north of the Russian border with Azerbaijan, is home to a large number of Russian border guards.