At least 19 people have been killed by a powerful bomb attack at a police station in southern Russia, officials and hospital sources say.
The suspected suicide bomb in Nazran, main city in the republic of Ingushetia, hurt more than 60 others, with some children said to be injured.
The explosion gutted the building as police lined up for a shift change.
Ingushetia borders Chechnya and has seen a spate of shootings, bombings and other attacks on police and government.
Violence aimed at Chechnya's pro-Russian government has frequently spilled over into neighbouring republics in the North Caucasus, including Ingushetia and Dagestan.
Ingush President Yunus-Bek Yevkurov was severely wounded when a suicide bomber attacked his motorcade in June 2009. He has not yet returned to work but is said to be recovering.
'Not enough blood'
Monday's bomb attack was described as the deadliest strike in months in Ingushetia.
Images from Nazran showed scenes of devastation within the police station compound, with nearby homes also badly damaged and burned-out cars strewn nearby.
The suicide bomber was reported to have rammed his vehicle into the gates of the police compound as officers were reporting for inspection, government spokesman Kaloi Akhilgov said.
"Practically all the cars and buildings in the yard of the police headquarters were completely destroyed," Reuters quoted him as saying.
The bomber was assumed to be among the dead, although this could not be confirmed.
Mr Akghilov told the AFP news agency that all of the dead were police, but 11 children were among those injured. Many of the injured were those living in residential buildings adjacent to the police station, he said.
The injured, many of whom were said to be in a serious condition, were taken to hospitals in Nazran.
But Mr Akghilov said authorities were struggling to cope with the casualties.
"We have not had such an attack for a long time," he said, adding that hospitals did not have enough blood to treat the injured.
A statement by Ingushetia's state prosecutor's office said the bomb was driven into the police station inside a small, Russian-made truck called a Gazelle, AFP said.
The explosion was described as "powerful", causing many casualties and "significant damage to the building", the statement added. It was estimated to have the force of at least 20kg (44lbs) of TNT, officials said.
Much of the violence in Ingushetia has echoed the continuing violence in Chechnya, with escalating clashes in the past year between pro-Russian security forces and armed militants.
Less than a week ago, Ingushetia's construction minister was shot dead by masked gunmen.
That followed the shooting dead of three employees of Russia's emergencies ministry.
In Chechnya, Russian forces were engaged in heavy fighting with separatist rebels until a few years ago, though the fighting has become much less intense recently.
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