At least eight people, including six children, were killed early today in an explosion at an apartment block in Chechnya's capital Grozny.
Three other children were hospitalised, the Interfax news agency said.
The cause of the blast is not yet known.
War-torn Chechnya has recently been rocked by a number of explosions caused by separatist suicide bombers.
In May, two suicide attacks within the space of three days killed 78 people in the republic.
A total of 19 people were killed just outside Chechnya when a bus carrying Russian air force personnel was targeted by a female suicide bomber Thursday. The woman also died in the blast in the south Russian republic of North Ossetia, near the border with Chechnya.
Russia has portrayed its crackdown in Chechnya as part of the global war on terror, pointing to links between al-Qaeda and the Chechen rebels.
AFP