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Russian
Military Hospital Blast Kills 21
August 1, 2003
By SERGEI VENYAVSKY, Associated Press Writer
ROSTOV-ON-DON, Russia - A vehicle exploded outside a Russian military
hospital near Chechnya on Friday, destroying the building, killing
at least 21 people and wounding 35 others, officials said.
The blast completely demolished the four-story red brick hospital in
the city of Mozdok in Russia's North Ossetia region, the region's Emergency
Situations Minister Boris Dzgoyev told The Associated Press.
Dzgoyev said that at the moment of the explosion, there were 115 people
inside the building, including medical workers and patients, and that
at least 21 people were killed. The building collapsed like a house
of cards, Dzgoyev said. He said that a fire broke out, but firefighters
managed to put out the blaze in less than two hours.
A duty officer at the regional Emergency Situations Ministry said that
35 people had been taken to Mozdok's central hospital and that four
others died on the way. It was unclear whether the 21 dead
included those four. Another duty officer said two bodies were recovered
from nearby buildings damaged in the blast.
Alina Totykova, deputy head of the North Ossetian regional hospital
in the regional capital Vladikavkaz, said all available ambulances were
sent to Mozdok. There was a serious shortage of medicine, anesthetics
and bandages and a severe shortage of blood, she said, adding that an
appeal for people to give blood would be broadcast on television in
the region.
Interfax said a truck packed with explosives crashed through the hospital
gates, a suicide bomber behind the wheel. Dzgoyev, however, said the
blast was caused by a small Russian-made car that exploded minutes after
pulling up to the hospital.
A woman who lives 2.5 miles from the hospital said windows broke and
plaster fell from walls in her neighborhood. "I saw a big column of
smoke," the woman, identified as Valentina, told Ekho Moskvy radio.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, which
followed an upsurge of suicide bombings that have killed more than 100
people in and around Chechnya and in Moscow since May.
President Vladimir Putin expressed condolences to relatives of the victims
and urged the North Ossetian leadership to tell federal authorities
in Moscow what was needed to aid the victims, the Kremlin said. Putin
also ordered law enforcement officials to investigate the blast.
Mozdok is the headquarters for Russian forces fighting in Chechnya and
has been targeted by attackers before. In June, a female suicide attacker
detonated a bomb near a bus carrying soldiers and civilians to work
at a military airfield near Mozdok, killing at least 16 people.
In May in Chechnya, a suicide truck-bombing killed 72 people and a woman
blew herself up at a religious ceremony, killing at least 18 people.
Explosion destroys Russian military hospital
Last Updated Fri, 01 Aug 2003 15:14:35
MOSCOW - At least 20 people were reported killed after a bomb went off
outside a military hospital in southern Russia on Friday evening.
The four-storey brick hospital in the town of Mozdok, near the border
with Chechnya, collapsed when a truck laden with explosives crashed
through the gates to the hospital grounds.
At least 100 soldiers were inside the hospital at the time of the blast.
Attempts to rescue them were hampered by a fire that broke out.
The fire was brought under control in about two hours.
Officials in the North Ossetian region said all available ambulances
were rushed to Mozdok, but that there was a shortage of blood, medicine
and medical supplies.
In Moscow, Russian President Vladimir Putin told regional authorities
to tell the Kremlin what they needed. Putin called for a full investigation.
No-one has claimed responsibility for the attack, but that's not unusual.
A number of suicide bombings in recent weeks have gone unclaimed.
Even without claims of responsibility, officials blame separatist rebels
for several bombings against Russian troops in and around Chechnya in
recent months.
At least 100 Russians have been killed in attacks since May. In June,
a female suicide bomber killed 16 people and herself when she attacked
a bus carrying air force personnel and civilians near Mozdok in June.
The Russian army uses Mozdok, which is in the North Ossetia region,
as a staging point and headquarters for forces fighting in Chechnya.
Written by CBC News Online staff
Deaths
in Russia Blast Hit 35, more likely to rise
August
1, 2003
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Some 35 corpses have been found and more were expected
at the site of an explosion that demolished a military hospital Friday
in a Russian region bordering rebellious Chechnya,
Interfax news agency quoted a state prosecutor as saying.
Interfax quoted Deputy Prosecutor General Sergei Fridinsky as saying
150 people were in hospital, including 100 patients. The death toll,
he said, was likely to rise.
Eyewitnesses said the blast was caused by a man driving a truck into
the hospital complex.
2003-08-01
21:09
SEND IN AS MANY DOCTORS AS YOU CAN, CALLS MOZDOK HOSPITAL AFTER BLAST
VLADIKAVKAZ, AUGUST 1, RIA NOVOSTI - Send us as many doctors as you
can, and donor blood!, call soldiers stationed in Mozdok, North Caucasus,
after tonight's blast in the local military hospital, an
officer on duty of the North Osset Emergencies Ministry said to Novosti.
A military hospital in Vladikavkaz, North Ossetia's capital, is urgently
forming a motorcade to deliver its doctors and medicines to the tragedy
site.
No less than twenty died in the blast, a Mozdok hospital spokesman said
to Novosti. Many services based in North Ossetia are reporting several
hundred victims.
Rescue works are on. Experts of the Federal Security Service, the Interior
Ministry and the top prosecutor's office are detecting on the site.
North Ossetia, Russia's constituent republic, borders on Chechnya
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2003-08-01 21:30
PUTIN DEMANDS MOZDOK HOSPITAL BLAST THOROUGHLY INVESTIGATED
MOSCOW, AUGUST 1, RIA NOVOSTI - As Kremlin PR said to Novosti, President
Vladimir Putin called on law-enforcement bodies to thoroughly investigate
the Mozdok tragedy and see just how a terror act was possible on heavily
guarded premises. He had emergency telephone conferences with Sergei
Ivanov, federal Defence Minister; Nikolai Patrushev, Federal Serurity
Service Director; and Vladimir
Ustinov, Prosecutor-General.
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