Twin bomb attack in Chechnya kills at least 40

At least 40 people were killed and more than 60 wounded when two suicide bombers drove trucks into the Chechen government compound in the regional capital Grozny today.

Russian Interior Minister Ruslan Tsakayev told the Interfax news agency that the bombs were contained in two vehicles which broke through into the heavily–guarded government compound.

The vehicles exploded just after the lunch break when the government headquarters building was full of employees and visitors. NTV television said that 150–200 people normally worked in the building.

One of the explosions was equivalent to one ton of TNT. After the first bomb, people fled the government building only to be caught by the second bomb, which went off a minute later.

NTV showed stunned and bleeding people stumbling out of the rubble of the administration building, one of the few in the war–shattered Chechen capital to have been completely renovated. Others were dragged out by their hands and feet, while soldiers covered in blood tried to establish order.

The administration headquarters, where the civilian government is based, was severely damaged. NTV showed windows blown out and a sea of building wreckage and burned–out cars in the adjacent square.

Neither the head of the Chechen administration, Akhmad Kadyrov, nor his deputy Mikhail Babich were in the building, NTV said. However, many other Chechen government workers were there.

Mr Kadyrov, who was in Moscow at the time of the bombing, told Interfax that one of the trucks had broken through three security cordons surrounding the government headquarters and called for an investigation of the security guards.

"How could the terrorists have managed to break through three fences around the government building? The guards' actions must be investigated," he was quoted as saying by Interfax.

Aslan Magomadov, an envoy of President Vladimir Putin, said there would be "serious questions" for the Ministry of Justice, Federal Guards Service and the Federal Security Service, Interfax reported.

Mr Kadyrov said that one explosion had occurred inside the building, and the interior of the building had been "practically destroyed." The nearby Chechen Finance Ministry was also badly damaged, Kravchenko, the prosecutor, said.

It was the biggest Chechen rebel attack since militants seized a Moscow theater in October, taking some 800 people hostage. All 41 attackers were killed, as were 129 of the hostages, all but two of whom succumbed to the gas used to incapacitate the assailants.

The last large attack in Grozny occurred in October, when rebels blew up a Grozny police precinct house, killing at least 25 people. Militants also exploded a passenger bus in September, killing 19 people, mostly civilians.

The Russian government has insisted that Chechnya is returning to normal, and that the military campaign there is nearly complete. But the rebels have continued to unleash small–scale attacks on Russian troops and Chechens perceived to be collaborating with them, as well as the occasional larger explosion of military trucks, police stations and other symbols of Russian authority.

Rebels have also shot down several military helicopters this year, including one in which at least 119 people perished.