| Two senior police officials from Altai were killed when an explosion ripped through their car in the turbulent North Ossetia region, authorities said Thursday. Sergei Bogdanets, Altai’s deputy interior minister for economic and tax crimes, and police Lieutenant Yury Maidurov were killed as they headed through Mozdok to the North Caucasus airport in Mineralniye Vody after a working trip to neighboring Chechnya, said Alexei Polyansky, spokesman for the southern Russian branch of the federal Interior Ministry. Two other passengers in the car were injured, and one escaped without any injuries, he said. Investigators initially thought the explosion was a terrorist attack, but the North Ossetian Interior Ministry later said it may have been caused by the careless handling of a flash-bang grenade.The investigation is continuing. Mozdok is the headquarters for federal forces fighting in Chechnya. |