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Blast rocks Grozny; 30 dead

By Vladimir Radyuhin

MOSCOW DEC. 27. Over 30 people were killed and scores injured in a suicide bomb attack on the government headquarters in the Chechen capital Grozny.

A truck and an off-road vehicle packed with explosives rammed through concrete barriers around the residence of the Moscow-installed Chechen government on Friday and exploded, shattering the four-storeyed building of the local administration and several other buildings in the heavily guarded government compound.

The Interfax quoted police sources in Grozny as saying that at least 32 people died and over 60 were wounded in the attack.

The Head of Chechnya's Administration, Ahmad Kadyrov, and the Prime Minister, Mikhail Babych, escaped unhurt.

A local security said that the truck carried about 1,000 kg of explosives in TNT equivalent.

Russian television showed footage of the government building razed to the ground and many cars smashed and gutted.

It is the first major Chechen rebel attack since terrorists seized a Moscow theatre in October, taking over 800 people hostage.

Russian commandos stormed the building killing all 41 attackers, but the incapacitating gas they used killed over 120 hostages.

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