Stavropol Bombings, 2 Dead, 20 InjuredBy Ana Uzelac -- The Moscow Times -- Friday, October 6, 2000 A series of closely timed bomb explosions shook the southern Stavropol region killing at least two people and injuring more than a dozen.
One woman was killed and four injured when the first bomb went off on the railway platform in the town of Pyatigorsk at 4:05 p.m., Interfax reported, citing the office of the Kremlin's spokesman on Chechnya, Sergei Yastrzhembsky. Just five minutes later, another bomb exploded at the market in the town of Nevinnomyssk, followed another five minutes later by a blast at a bus station near the town's administrative building. Yastrzhembsky's office said one woman was killed and eight injured, some seriously, but Interior Minister Vladimir Rushailo later said the number of injured was higher, around 20. "There were no threats, no anonymous phone calls and so far nobody has taken responsibility for the blasts," an official in Yastrzhembsky's office was quoted as saying. Police detained two suspects in Pyatigorsk and two in Nevinnomyssk, according to news reports. The towns are about 100 kilometers apart. NTV television showed pictures of the injured lying on the platform in Pyatigorsk while people around them tried to help. Some news agencies reported a second explosion at the station. NTV said the number of casualties could have been much higher had a suburban train arrived at the platform as scheduled. The train was rerouted. Interfax quoted Yastrzhembsky's office as saying the bomb at the Pyatigorsk station was hidden in a trash can. Rushailo said a special operational unit was formed to investigate the explosions, headed by the chief of the ministry's main criminal investigation directorate, Vyacheslav Trubnikov. The unit also would include investigators from the directorate that fights organized crime, he said. It was not immediately clear whether the explosions were linked. The Stavropol region borders Chechnya, where federal troops are still fighting a low-intensity war against independence-minded Chechen rebels. In April 1997, two people were killed and about 20 wounded in a blast that destroyed the same train station in Pyatigorsk. Two Chechen women were accused of planting that bomb and sentenced to prison. In September 1999, more than 300 people were killed in a series of apartment building bombings in Moscow and two southern towns, which the government was quick to accuse Chechen rebels of masterminding. In August of this year, a blast in a Moscow underground passage killed 13 people and wounded dozens more. But both in August and Friday, officials were cautious about blaming the Chechens. "We are considering different versions and among them also one supposing the blast was organized by people participating in the unlawful armed units," Rushailo said. While referring to the fighting in Chechnya, he avoided using the word "Chechen." Adapted from The Moscow Times. |
