The death toll in Thursday evening's twin blasts in Dagestan has hit 13 people, with about 100 injured, a source in the Republic of Dagestan's law enforcement services said.
The twin blasts in Makhachkala, the capital of Dagestan, also injured about 100 people, the source said. Eighty-three people were hospitalized, while 26 received medical treatment on site. The thirteen dead include seven police officers, two firefighters and two local residents.
According to preliminary information, a suicide bomber died when he blew up his car after it was stopped for a security check at a police post on the outskirts of the city.
“The explosive technicians say the first car, a Mitsubishi, had a 30 kg TNT equivalent bomb in it,” said the National Antiterror Committee’s Nikolai Sintsov.
The bomb was so powerful that it was hard to tell what kind of car was involved, he said.
At approximately 10.45 pm local time, or about half an hour after the first blast, the second bomb, contained 50 kg TNT equivalent, went off in a Gazelle light van parked nearby, killing twelve.
The second blast took place when a vehicle with emergency service personnel had arrived at the scene. The blasts claimed the lives of three rescuers and six police officers, but casualty reports are still being verified, according to the republic’s interior ministry.
Police are also trying to find out whether the blasts were meant to go off near the police station or whether the perpetrators had hoped to smuggle the bombs past the police checkpoint, a law-enforcement official said.
The interior minister of Dagestan said his agency knew who was behind the attack.
“We understand who organized and carried out the crime and are working on possible suicide bombers… We are also working with witnesses,” Magomed Magomedov said in his report to federal Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliyev.
Magomedov also said that police had established the owner of the Mitsubishi car that exploded first near the police station.
“Now we are tracking down how the car got into the hands of the criminals,” he said.
The twin blasts have been classed as a terrorist attack.
The republic’s head, Magomedsalam Magomedov, had to cut short his working visit to Moscow and is urgently returning to the republic.
The explosions could be heard throughout the city located in Russia's volatile North Caucasus. Attacks on security forces, police and civilians are still frequent in the region more than a decade after the end of a war against separatists in Russia's North Caucasus republic of Chechnya.
In the latest development, security forces in neighboring Ingushetia defused a “powerful” explosive device, a local official said.
