Twelve people, including nine police officers, were killed in two blasts on Wednesday in the town of Kizlyar in Russia's volatile North Caucasus region of Dagestan.

Eleven people, including two police officers, were killed in two blasts on Wednesday in the town of Kizlyar in Russia's volatile North Caucasus region of Dagestan.[China.com.cn]

"In the blasts, 12 people have been killed, nine of them were police officers, including the Kizlyar police chief. Twenty-three others have been hospitalized, suffering with various injuries," Vladimir Markin, spokesman for the Investigative Committee of Russian Prosecutor General's Office, told the Interfax news agency.

Dagestani authorities have launched a criminal investigation over the two explosions, he said.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has been informed of the terrorist attacks in Kizlyar.

Eleven people, including two police officers, were killed in two blasts on Wednesday in the town of Kizlyar in Russia's volatile North Caucasus region of Dagestan.[China.com.cn]

"Medvedev has also spoken to Dagestan's President Magomedsalam Magomedov over the phone. The president ordered (Dagestani authorities) to provide all-round support for the families of the victims, as well as to provide all necessary assistance, including medical and financial, to the people injured," the press service told Russian media.

In the first explosion happened at 08:30 a.m. Moscow time (0430 GMT), a roadside car was denoted by a suicide bomber when a police car was passing by, killing three people including two police officer, the regional Interior Ministry spokesman Vyacheslav Gasanov told the Itar-Tass.

As investigators and residents gathering at the scene of the blast, a second bomber dressed as a policeman approached and set off explosives, killing the town's police chief among others, said Vyacheslav Gadzhiyev, another spokesman for the ministry. After the explosions, Russian Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliyev ordered to tighten up security at public places in Dagestan.

Nurgaliyev added that Russia's response to the terrorist acts in Moscow on Monday morning when two suicide bombers killed 39 people on the city's subway would be tough and principled.

Rescuers, firefighters and policemen are working at the blast site.

The blast came two days after two female suicide bombers killed 39 in attacks at the Moscow metro which the authorities have linked to militants from the North Caucasus.