A terror attack on a hydroelectric power station in Russia's Kabardino-Balkaria region has killed two guards and injured two others, officials say. An explosion started a fire in the Baksan plant's engine room but it was otherwise functioning normally, the state-run RusHydro company said. Supplies to the electricity grid were not affected, it added. The plant lies on the Baksan river in a part of the North Caucasus in the grip of a violent Islamist insurgency. At least one explosion occurred at the plant at 0525 local time (0125 GMT), RusHydro said in a statement on its website.
"Preliminary reports indicate that a terrorist attack caused the explosion and fire," it said. Emergency services and security forces were working at the scene to establish the scale of the damage. Police spokesman Adlan Kakakuyev said two cars carrying half a dozen assailants had attacked the Baksan plant, shooting two guards and wounding three others. They then set explosives in several parts of the 25-megawatt plant and detonated them before fleeing, he was quoted as saying by the Associated Press news agency. No group was saying immediately that it had carried out the attack, the agency adds. The Baksan hydroelectric power station was built in the 1930s.
