A pipeline carrying gas to a city in the troubled southern Russian province of Dagestan exploded early on Sunday, leaving most city residents without gas but causing no injuries. Authorities blamed the blast on terrorists.
The explosion took place in the early hours of Sunday in the city of Khasavyurt, the province's second largest city near the border with war-battered Chechnya, said Anzhela Martirosova, spokeswoman for the regional Interior Ministry.
Martirosova said experts examining the site of the blast believe the pipeline was sabotaged. Workers have begun repairs, she said. A mostly Muslim region, Dagestan is plagued by violence, some sparked by internal conflicts and some seen as a spillover from neighboring Chechnya, where separatist rebels have been fighting Russian soldiers for most of the past dozen years.