MOSCOW, September 9, 2010 (RIA Novosti) 

At least 15 people died and 87 were injured in an explosion in Russia's North Caucasus city of Vladikavkaz, investigators said.

The blast occurred near the city's central market at 11:22 Moscow time (07:22 GMT).

The explosive device, equivalent to 30-40 kg of TNT, was detonated by a suicide bomber in a Volga car, spokeswoman Maria Gatsoyeva said.

A local police source said the bomber had been identified as a man named Archiyev and the car owner's name was Dobriyev.

The market has been the target of two earlier terrorist attacks.

In 1999, an explosion killed 55 people and injured 300 others. In 2008, 12 people were killed and over 40 injured in a bus bombing.

President Dmitry Medvedev called on officials to help the injured and start investigations into the incident.

Medvedev's envoy to the North Caucasus, Alexander Khloponin, is on his way to Vladikavkaz on the president's orders.

Vladikavkaz is the capital of the republic of North Ossetia, one of the many terrorism hotspots in Russia's troubled North Caucasus region.

North Ossetia, as well as neighboring Dagestan and Chechnya, have seen increasing violence in recent years, with shootings and bomb attacks becoming regular occurences. Officials have vowed to clamp down on militant groups.

Powerful blast rocks market in south Russia, 15 killed

MOSCOW. September 9, 2010 (Xinhua) --

A powerful explosion ripped through a market in Vladikavkaz city in the southern Russian republic of North Ossetia on Thursday, killing at least 15 people and injuring about 80, the RIA Novosti news agency reported, citing the republic's Interior Ministry.

"The information is being updated," North Ossetia's Deputy Emergency Situations Minister Kazbek Bekmurzov told the Itar-Tass news agency.

The official said that after the explosion people began to move the dead and injured away from the scene to catch taxis and rush them to hospitals.

The scene of the explosion was sealed immediately and even police have been evacuated from the area, after law-enforcement agents saw a car, listed as stolen, at the scene. Specialists were called with sniffer dogs to probe it for explosives, the deputy minister said.

The Interfax news agency also reported that another explosive device was found near the entrance to the market.

The blast, equivalent to 25-30 kilograms of TNT, was caused by a car bomb. The car used to carry the bomb was parked near the market in Zanayev Street, a source from local police told media.

North Ossetia leader Taimuraz Mamsurov has arrived at the market, Itar-Tass reported.

Mamsurov said a headless corpse had been found in the car carrying the bomb. It was a suicide bomber who set off the bomb, the leader said.

Russian Emergency Situations Ministry has sent a plane to Vladikavkaz to deliver some injured persons to Moscow hospitals, Interfax said.