Russia on alert after bomb blast kills seven

Russian authorities on Thursday vowed to strike back after a bomb blast killed seven people and wounded dozens in the southern city of Stavropol minutes before a Chechen dance concert.

A bomb packed with steel pellets hidden in a juice carton went off near a cultural centre on Wednesday evening as locals were gathering for the performance of a renowned Chechen folk group.

The attack came just days before a Russia-EU summit is due to meet in the town of Rostov-on-Don in a neighbouring region next week.

By Thursday morning, the death toll had risen to seven, including a 12-year-old girl, and 33 people remained hospitalized, many in critical condition, officials said.

Mudalif Tambiyev, a youth injured in the explosion, said he had escaped with light injuries thanks to his friend.

"There was a blast. My friend covered me," he said in televised remarks speaking from his hospital bed. As a result, Tambiyev received light injuries, while his friend was in intensive care, he said.

So far no group has claimed responsibility but officials said those who did not want peace in the Caucasus would not succeed.

Stavropol, which lies on the northern edge of the Caucasus, has until now rarely seen the bloody attacks that characterize the simmering guerrilla war between Russian forces and separatist rebels.

"This is an audacious provocation," said regional governor Valery Gayevsky.

"Someone wants to shake loose the friendly relations between the peoples and republics. These forces do not want peace in the Caucasus. But we will put them in their place," he said.

Gayevsky spoke by telephone with President Dmitry Medvedev late at night, telling the Kremlin chief about the situation with the injured and the investigation.

"The head of state expressed condolences to the families of the tragedy's victims," the Stavropol regional administration said in a statement.

The Kremlin and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin did not make a separate statement.

Russia is battling a violent Islamist insurgency in the North Caucasus, and deadly attacks in the republics of Chechnya, Ingushetia and Dagestan are a near-daily occurrence.

Yekaterina Danilova, an official with the regional investigative committee, said investigators were considering several theories, including terrorism and attempts to stir up ethnic hatred in the predominantly Russian city.

Officials said over 40 people were injured in the blast.

Regional police called on residents to be vigilant but not to panic.

Families of the dead will receive 700,000 rubles (22,700 dollars) in compensation, a government spokeswoman told AFP. Those with serious wounds will receive 300,000 rubles and those who escaped with light injuries 150,000 rubles.

In March, Russia was shaken to the core when two female suicide bombers, both from the North Caucasus region of Dagestan, killed 40 people in a pair of coordinated attacks on the Moscow metro.

Medvedev has said the unrest in the Caucasus is Russia's most serious domestic problem.

The Kremlin attempted to strengthen its hold in the region in January by appointing a new envoy responsible for the North Caucasus, businessman Alexander Khloponin.

Khloponin, in a newspaper interview published Thursday, played down the scale of terrorism permeating the region.

"Today criminal groups from a number of republics are engaged in racketeering, demanding tribute from entrepreneurs.

"And they are trying to tie it all 'beautifully' to the name of Allah and Islam," he told government newspaper Rossiiskaya Gazeta.

"They have nothing to do with real terrorism."