Two suicide bombers on bicycles killed four policemen in the capital of Russia’s mainly Muslim republic of Chechnya yesterday, in the latest in a wave of attacks in the region.
The number of attacks on officials has soared in recent months in Chechnya and the neighbouring regions of Dagestan and Ingushetia, undermining the Kremlin’s dreams of taming Islamic violence with oil revenues.
“One suicide bomb was detonated four metres from a police car, killing two officers,” Chechen interior minister Ruslan Alkhanov told reporters.
“Two police died and one was injured in a second attack.”
Both attackers used bicycles, he added. The use of bicycles would represent a change of tactics for insurgents in the north Caucasus who have carried out suicide bombings by foot or using cars and trucks.
Blood and body parts could be seen near the remains of a bicycle and a police car at the site of one of the explosions. Police blocked journalists from approaching the site of the other bomb.
There has been a series of bombings in Grozny in recent months, ending years of relative calm in the city during a rebuilding campaign by regional president Ramzan Kadyrov, a former rebel. Five people were killed last month when a suicide bomber blew himself up in a crowd next to a concert hall in the centre of Grozny ahead of an event due to be attended by Mr Kadyrov.