12 killed and 22 hurt as blast rips through Russian base in Chechnya

Rostove-on-Don, Russia: Twelve people were killed and 22 injured when an explosion ripped through a two-story military barracks in Russia's troubled province of Chechnya, the Emergency Situations Ministry said on Wednesday.

Investigators said that according to preliminary data, the blast that caused the building to collapse was caused by a natural gas leak, said Oleg Ugnivenko, a spokesman for the ministry's southern regional office.

Backing up that conclusion, there were no immediate claims of responsibility for any attack on the barracks.

Military prosecutors opened a criminal investigation on charges of violations of fire safety regulations and negligence.

The blast occurred late Tuesday at the base of a special Defense Ministry security force in Kurchaloi, some 30 kilometres southeast of the Chechen capital, Grozny.

Some of the injured managed to climb out of the collapsed building, while rescuers took hours to save others and pull out dead bodies.

Local police officials quoted by the RIA-Novosti news agency said the blast occurred in the building's basement, where the base's kitchen was located and where "supposedly there were gas containers."

Earlier, officials said it was a gas explosion, but no remains of either gas containers or any explosives were so far found.

Roman Shchekotin, a spokesman for the Interior Ministry's branch in southern Russia, said late Tuesday that 43 servicemen were believed to have been inside the barracks at the time of the explosion.

The base houses Chechen troops serving in a special Defense Ministry security force, called Vostok.

Chechnya, a mainly Muslim southern Russian republic, has suffered almost continuous conflict between separatist rebels on the one side and Russian forces and their Chechen allies on the other since 1994.

Large-scale fighting has died down but skirmishes and almost daily guerrilla land mine attacks continue.