A bomb explosion has derailed fourteen coaches of an empty freight train and damaged its engine in Russia's restive North Caucasus republic of Dagestan, said officials and Russian media reports on Friday.
The incident reportedly took place in Makhachkala, the capital of Dagestan, on Thursday night. Officials said the empty freight train was struck by the explosion when it was on its way to Makhachkala from the town of Derbent.
Though the explosion did not cause any causalities, it has delayed two passenger trains, namely the Baku-Tyumen and Tyumen-Baku trains, which were to pass through the affected section. Russian officials said that the repair works of the damaged railway line is currently progressing.
Russian officials are considering the attack to be a terrorist act and have launched an investigation into the incident. They have already examined the immediate area of the blast to ensure the absence of more explosives.
Islamist separatist groups in the North Caucasus region have carried out several such attacks in the recent past, specially after the end of the second Chechen war. Russia had launched the operation to crush Chechnya's post-Soviet independence movement.
Though Russia ended its counter-terrorism operation in Chechnya in April 2009, periodic bombings and clashes between militants and federal troops still disrupt the southern republic and nearby regions, particularly Daghestan and Ingushetia. Experts say that insurgency in Russian North Caucasus region is fueled by Islamic extremism, separatism and poor economic conditions.
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