One people died and two others were injured on Wednesday in a blast and subsequent blaze at an indoor market in the city of Nazran, regional capital of Russia's turbulent North Caucasus republic of Ingushetia, Russian news agencies reported.
Alexei Vorobyov, Ingush security council secretary, was quoted by the Itar-Tass news agency as saying that the blast occurred at 7:52 p.m. Moscow time (1552 GMT) on Wednesday.
He also excluded the possibility of a terrorist attack, saying that a gas tank exploded at the market because of violation of security rules.
Meanwhile, the Interfax news agency reported citing Ingush Emergency Situations Ministry that a Gazelle vehicle near the market exploded, triggering the subsequent blaze.
The blaze has been extinguished, said the Interfax. Experts were working at the scene to determine the actual cause of the fire.
The Kremlin in April formally ended an anti-terrorist operation in Chechnya, which has experienced two bloody separatist wars in the past 15 years.
The restive Chechnya, along with its neighboring republics of Ingushetia and Dagestan, has seen a rise in daily violence in recent months.
(Xinhua News Agency August 6, 2009)
