MOSCOW -- At least 41 people were killed and 269 others injured Monday in a suicide bombing attack in the Russian province of Chechnya Monday.
The RIA Novosti news agency reported that a bomber drove a truck loaded with explosives into the northern Chechen village of Znamenskoye and set off a blast about 10:10 a.m. that brought down four apartment buildings, each containing eight apartments.
Also damaged were the buildings of the local administration in Znamenskoye, police and FSB headquarters.
Authorities said the truck driver smashed through a barricade in front of a complex of administration buildings. Preliminary findings by weapons experts said the truck carried about 2,200 pounds of explosives.
Entire families were killed as the apartment buildings collapsed. The youngest victim was a 4-year-old, but there were several other children among the victims, an official said.
While the death toll was set at 41, however, authorities fear additional casualties as the rescue workers at the blast site still have to recover bodies from beneath the rubble.
"We still do not know anything about the fate of dozens of people who could either be buried under the rubble or might have found themselves near the blast site at the moment when the bomb went off. It may be practically impossible to identify these people," the source said.
The blast destroyed four buildings and damaged nine others. None of buildings, each of which was separated into eight apartments, are now suitable for habitation unless they are renovated at some point in the future.
Russia's Defense Ministry said in a statement that five servicemen were injured in the attack, but no deaths were reported.
Rescue officers have been sending the injured to a makeshift hospital near Znamenskoye and a local hospital in the Nadterechny district. From there, the more seriously hurt victims were taken to hospitals in Grozny and Mozdok.
A special commission has been set up to assess the damage, Russia's Minister on Chechen Affairs Stanislav Ilyasov said.
"After that we will take measures to restore destroyed housing and make a decision on allocating financial aid to the victims of the blast," Ilyasov added.
According to Ilyasov, Monday's attack was an "attempt to undermine the work of federal authorities in the province, which are solving not only economic problems, but political ones, too."
"The people who committed this act of terror are black forces that do not want order and peaceful co-existence to take roots in Chechnya, they are comfortable with the way things are at present," he said.
The official pledged that the perpetrators of the crime would be tracked down and punished, just as those who had carried out a similar bombing in the Chechen capital of Grozny last December.
In March, Chechens voted overwhelmingly in favor of a new provincial constitution and are expected to go to polls again this year to elect a new parliament. Presidential elections could be next March 2004 as Moscow attempts to devolve power to local authorities.
However, diehard rebel ranks, often filled with mercenaries trained beyond Russia's borders in terrorist camps run by Islamic fundamentalists, refuse to give up arms and continue attacks on Chechnya-stationed Russian troops and local civilians and officials.
Copyright 2003 by United Press International.
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