NAZRAN, March 11. /TASS/. According to preliminary data, a high-power explosive device went off in a car that exploded near a mosque in the town of Nazran in the Russian North Caucasus republic of Ingushetia, injuring one person, a source in Ingushetia’s law enforcement bodies told TASS.
"It was not a gas cylinder that exploded in the car but a powerful explosive device detonated," the source said.
The incident occurred near the Nasyr-Kortovskaya Mosque where Friday’s prayer was underway. Earlier the cause of the explosion was not named but some media assumed that a gas cylinder mounted in the car exploded.
A 56-year-old local resident passing inside a car by the incident site was injured. He was taken to the Ingush Republican Clinical Hospital.
The hospital told TASS that the condition of the wounded is extremely serious.
"He is in intensive care, he has a serious head injury," a spokesman said.
A TASS correspondent reported the car was parked near the mosque. The car was nearly destroyed by the blast. A nearby house and some five other cares were damaged.
Russia’s law enforcement agencies continue fighting militants in the North Caucasus over 15 years since the battle phase of the second war against Islamist separatists in Chechnya came to an end in 2000. Attacks on security officials and civilians occur from time to time in Dagestan, Ingushetia and Kabardino-Balkaria.