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An explosion ripped through the building of a district interior department in Chechnya's capital of Grozny on Thursday evening, killing at least 25 policemen, the Itar-tass news agency reported.
The agency quoted a spokesman for Grozny's commandant office assaying that the death toll could increase by morning when more rubble would be cleared.
It also reported that more than 17 policemen were wounded in the blast in Grozny's Zavodskoy district, citing a Chechen law enforcement source.
At least 40 people were in the four-storey building for a routine meeting when a bomb went off at around 17:45 Moscow time (1345 GMT) on the second floor directly under the meeting room, said the Chechen Prime Minister Stanislav Ilyasov.
Grozny's Deputy Mayor Supyan Makhchayev said on the ORT channelthat both the third and the fourth floors have been destroyed.
Chechen First Deputy Prime Minister Bislan Gantamirov said in atelephone interview with Itar-tass that the explosion was most likely to be a terrorist attack.
"We are absolutely sure of that. A gas explosion is ruled out. Only our people could bring the bomb into the building," he said
(Xinhua News Agency October 11, 2002)
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