MOSCOW, May 4 (Itar-Tass) — The policemen were killed in Makhachkala saving civilians, Russian Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliyev told the patients at the hospital of the Interior Ministry on Friday.
During the visit to the veterans of the Great Patriotic War and policemen, who were injured in the North Caucasus and are being cured at the hospital of the Interior Ministry, the minister told them about the death of their fellow police officers in a double terrorist act in Makhachkala.
The vehicles lined up in a long queue at the road police post, because the police checked thoroughly all cars driving out of the city, Nurgaliyev said.
“The suicide bomber realized that he cannot pass the cordon and detonated the deadly bomb,” the minister said. After that the cars of civilians caught fire and the policemen became to jump out from burning cars.
“The crime scene was immediately fenced off, emergency workers rushed to the blast site. The second car, which broke through the cordons, exploded and killed our police officers. Our officers died saving civilians,” the minister pointed out.
He noted that the losses could have been much larger, if many people were not evacuated from the blast site by police.
The double terrorist act in Makhachkala killed 11 people, Dagestani Interior Minister Magomed Magomedov told Nurgaliyev before. Seven police officers, three emergency workers and a local resident were killed in the explosions, he said. Some 87 people were wounded, 63 of them are being treated at the hospitals.
The Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations earlier reported about 13 killed people and 109 injured people, 83 of them were hospitalized. Another emergency worker is reported missing.