At least two people were killed and 16 injured in serial blasts that ripped through gambling parlours in Vladikavkaz, the capital of North Ossetia republic, in south Russia.
According to local media reports, the bombs went off in at least three gambling parlours last night and the injured were mostly youth aged between 20-30 years.
The president of North Ossetia, Taimuraz Mamsurov, has summoned an emergency meeting of the local government and the authorities have closed all the 300 gambling parlours and night clubs in the town for checking by bomb-disposal staff.
The authorities have not ruled out "underworld links" behind the explosions.
North Ossetia is mulling a ban on gambling dens after neighbouring Chechnya and other Muslim-dominated regions of Russia imposed ban on gambling machines and parlours.