GROZNY, Russia -- A mine exploded near Chechen President Aslan Maskhadov's motorcade Sunday in an assassination attempt while he was returning to his residence. Maskhadov was not hurt.
One person was killed and eight were wounded, said the president's press secretary.It was the second explosion to rock the troubled Caucasus region in just three days. On Friday, at least 51 people were killed in an explosion at a crowded market in Vladikavkaz. Both blasts were seen as attempts at further destabilizing the region and Russia as a whole.
The radio-controlled mine on Sunday was hidden about 220 yards from Maskhadov's residence in a sewage drain on the main street of the provincial capital of Grozny, Interfax said.
Shooting broke out after the blast, which created a crater 10 feet deep and 16 feet in diameter and blew windows out of nearby buildings. Thousands of Grozny residents gathered at the scene.
Security forces were put on alert, and a search was launched for a red four-wheel-drive truck that was seen near the bombing site, Interfax reported.
Maskhadov later appeared on local television, and said the attempt on his life -- the fourth in three years -- was linked to a deadly bombing last week in the neighboring Caucasus republic of North Ossetia.
He said "influential forces are interested in putting off and upsetting the elections in Russia (scheduled for December) and introducing a state of emergency," accord-
ing to Interfax.
The ITAR-Tass news agency quoted Maskhadov as saying that the explosion had been organized by "certain forces in Moscow" that are "trying to destabilize the situation in the Caucasus by any means."
In Moscow, Interior Minister Sergei Stepashin said the attempt against Maskhadov and the market explosion on Friday were connected with people trying to prevent Maskhadov and Russian Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov from meeting.