Suicide bomber targets police station in southern Russia

Several men are reported to have attacked a police station in the southern Russian city of Nazran (Ingushetia). Police in this rural area have been placed on high alert. The attack occurred close to the Muslim-majority North Caucasus area, where Islamist extremists have routinely targeted the police. Details about the attack are unclear and reports vary, however it is suggested that there were three attackers, at least one of whom was a suicide bomber. At least one report suggests that gunfire was also heard during the attack. All three assailants appear to have died, although it is not known if there were further casualties.

Three men, including at least one suicide bomber, have attacked a rural police station in southern Russia, the interior ministry has said, adding police in the affected area had been put on high alert.

The incident took place in a village in the Stavropol region, close to the volatile Muslim-majority North Caucasus area, where Islamic extremists intent upon carving out a breakaway caliphate have targeted police officers in a series of car bombings and shootings.

“An attack took place on a regional police station,” a spokesman for the interior ministry in Stavropol said. “One of the attackers blew himself up, two others were killed.” Initial reports said no one else had been hurt.

Accounts of what happened varied. Some Russian news agencies cited unnamed police sources as saying three suicide bombers had blown themselves up and that there were four attackers. Reuters could not independently confirm that.

The interior ministry spokesman said the authorities had responded to the attack by activating the Fortress Plan, which meant police had been put on a higher state of military-style readiness.

A witness video on the lifenews.ru news portal filmed at what it said was the scene of the attack showed the blackened entrance to the police station and assorted debris in front of it as an alarm sounded in the background.

The man filming the video, who was not named, said there had been five explosions and automatic gunfire.