The UN Security Council on Friday condemned "in the strongest terms" a suicide car bomb attack in southern Russian city of Vladikavkaz on Thursday, which reportedly left at least 17 people dead and more than 100 others injured.

The condemnation was contained in a statement read to the press here by Turkish UN Ambassador Ertugrul Apakan, who holds the rotating Security Council presidency for September, at the end of closed-door consultations among 15 Council members.

"The members of the Security Council condemn in the strongest terms the terrorist attack that occurred in Vladikavkaz, the Russian Federation, on Sept. 9, 2010, causing numerous deaths and injuries," the statement said. "They expressed their deep sympathy and condolences to the victims of these heinous acts of terrorism and to their families, and to the people and government of the Russian Federation."

The powerful explosion ripped through the central market in Vladikavkaz in North Ossetia, Russia, on Thursday morning. The area around the market was busy at the time, partly because there is an employment office nearby.

Bodies lay strewn and buildings were damaged by the explosion, which went off in a car packed with metal bars, bolts and ball bearings, reports said.

"The members of the Security Council reaffirmed that terrorism in all its forms and manifestations constitutes one of the most serious threats to international peace and security, and that any acts of terrorism are criminal and unjustifiable, regardless of their motivation, wherever, whenever and by whomsoever committed," the president said in the statement.

"The members of the Security Council reiterated their determination to combat all forms of terrorism, in accordance with its responsibilities under the Charter of the United Nations," the statement added.

The area around the market was busy at the time, partly because there is an employment office nearby, reports said, adding that schools and kindergartens were evacuated throughout the city in response to an anonymous bomb threat.

Vladikavkaz is the capital of the Russian republic of North Ossetia, next to the volatile region of Ingushetia.

Russia's North Caucasus region has been beset by Islamist and separatist violence and the area around the market in Vladikavkaz has been targeted before. In the deadliest attack, 55 people were killed in an explosion in 1999.

North Ossetia, as well as its neighboring North Caucasus republics of Dagestan, Ingushetia and Chechnya, have seen increasing violence in recent years.