Dagestan twin blasts leave 3 killed, 40 injured

PanARMENIAN.Net - Twin blasts rocked Makhachkala, the capital of Dagestan, on Monday, May 20 killing three and injuring over 40 people, the republic’s Interior Ministry said, according to RIA Novosti.

The blasts took place about 15 minutes apart, near the Bailiff Service building, local authorities say. No one was reported killed in the first explosion. Two policemen and one Bailiff Service employee were killed by the second blast, the Interior Ministry said. A three-year-old child is among those reported injured, local Health Ministry officials told RIA Novosti.

“We were working as usual, at our desks. Panic broke out when we heard two explosions,” said Magomed Buttayev, who works as a press officer for the local Bailiff Service.

Earlier on Monday, the local Investigative Committee issued a statement saying that at least eight people had been killed and an as yet unknown number injured in the explosions.

The local Investigative Committee also suggested that both explosions, which are reported to have been car bombs, could have been detonated remotely. No group has yet claimed responsibility for the blasts.

An Islamist insurgency, once confined largely to the republic of Chechnya, has spread across the North Caucasus in recent years. Attacks on security forces, police and civilians are reported regularly in the neighboring republics of Dagestan, Ingushetia and Kabardino-Balkaria.