Chechen Prosecutor General Vladimir Kravchenko told Itar-Tass at the scene that eight people were killed when a female suicide bomber blew herself up at a crowded religious event in the eastern village of Iliskhan-Yurt.

The woman attacker exploded the bomb when the head of the Chechen Civil Administration Akhmat Kadyrov was making a statement. Kadyrov was not hurt. Two of his bodyguards were injured.

There has been suspicion that another suicide woman attacker had been in the festive crowd. However, she failed to detonate the explosive device, which was later rendered harmless by bomb disposal experts.

Earlier, Interfax quoted a Chechen security official as saying that over 20 people were killed in the suicide bombing.

This is the second major terrorist attack, which took place in Chechnya since the beginning of this week. On May 12, terrorists blew up a truck stuffed with large amount of explosives near an administrative compound in the village of Znamenskoye in Chechnya's Nadterechny district, killing 59 people.

(Xinhua News Agency May 15, 2003)