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Hospital blown up near Chechnya

By Vladimir Radyuhin

MOSCOW AUG. 1. A truck bomb shattered a military hospital in a Russian province near Chechnya today, a news agency reported.

The RIA-Novosti news said the truck, loaded with at least one tonne of explosives in TNT equivalent, rammed the gate and exploded near the main hospital building in Mozdok in North Ossetia, which borders Chechnya, at about 7 p.m. Moscow time. A RIA Novosti correspondent reporting from Mozdok said the building was razed to the ground and a huge crater was gaping at the site.

The news agency quoted a local official in Mozdok as saying the blast had killed at least 20 persons.The toll may be much higher as there were about 100 patients and 35 medical staff at the hospital, which caters to Russian soldiers wounded in Chechnya.

A rescue official told Channel 1 television that 35 wounded patients were evacuated from the hospital ruins.

It is the third major suicide attack involving truck bombs in the region since December.

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