Two suicide bombers on bicycles killed four policemen in the capital of Russia's mainly Muslim republic of Chechnya today, officials said, 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 said.
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 charred remains of a bicycle and a police car at the site one of the explosions. Police blocked journalists from approaching the site of the other bomb.
Grozny has seen a series of bombings 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 in July 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 Kadyrov.
Twenty-five people were killed and nearly 140 were wounded in Ingushetia on Monday when a suicide bomber blew up a truck filled with explosives in the bloodiest attack in the mainly Muslim North Caucasus region since 2005.
Reuters