Twenty dead in Russia blast - police
( 2002-05-09 15:57 ) (7 )

Around 20 people were killed and more than 100 wounded in southern Russia on Thursday when a landmine blew up a bus carrying a military band to festivities marking the defeat of Nazi Germany, police and news agencies said.

"According to information we have, more than 100 people were injured and about 20 people died at the scene," said a police spokesman in the republic of Dagestan, which borders Russia's rebel Chechnya.

The deaths came just moments before President Vladimir Putin, addressing the main Victory Day parade in Moscow's Red Square, said terrorism was the new common threat facing the world, as Nazism had been almost 60 years ago.

"Only by uniting the effort of the people and the state can we confront these threats," Putin said.

"That was well proven by the anti-Hitler coalition. The coalition countries defeated the enemy. And today, we are again uniting and finding allies against a common threat.

"Its name is terrorism."

According to Russian news agencies, the bus carrying the band exploded during the traditional parade marking the 57th anniversary of the end of World War Two.

Interfax news agency reported that the explosive device was concealed in bushes on the main street of the town, around 300 metres (yards) from the square where the Victory Day parade was taking place.

It said the explosion occurred as the band's bus passed the bushes. Police were unable to confirm the report.

Bombs have rocked Russian regions, mostly those close to Chechnya, since Moscow sent troops back into the secessionist province in 1999 to bring it back to its fold.

Although the authorities say the military phase of that operation is over, Russia continues to lose soldiers almost daily in ambushes and bomb attacks.

On April 28, seven people died in a bomb attack on a market in Vladikavkaz, the capital of North Ossetia which also borders Chechnya. Last November, five people died in an explosion in the same city. In July 2000, another five people were killed in two blasts in provinces bordering Chechnya.

The authorities have routinely blamed the blasts on separatist guerrillas.