Moscow: An eight-year-old girl was killed and two boys wounded when an explosive device went off on Monday in the Russian town of Beslan, the site of a 2004 school attack that killed more than 300 people, news agency RIA reported.
It was unclear what sort of device led to the explosion, RIA cited a spokeswoman for the Emergency Situations Ministry branch in North Ossetia province, Yulia Starchenko, as saying. She said the device may have been a grenade.
The boys, brothers aged seven and 10, were hospitalised with shrapnel wounds, Starchenko was quoted as saying.
Beslan, in Russia`s turbulent North Caucasus, was devastated by a September 2004 hostage-taking that led to the deaths of at least 334 people, more than half of them children.
Chechen rebels seized Beslan`s School No 1 and held more than 1,000 pupils, parents and teachers hostage for nearly three days. Most of the victims died in explosions and gunfire that ensued when Russian forces stormed the school.
Bureau Report
