Chechen President killed in stadium blast

The exact number of dead was not clear. Itar-Tass news agency put the death toll at 14, but later quoted the Emergencies Ministry as saying there were only four dead. Other unconfirmed reports said the number of dead was much higher. Putin, sworn in only on Friday for a second four-year term, himself announced the death of Akhmad Kadyrov, President of the region, and a key player in the Kremlin’s plans to crush the bloody separatist rebellion.

‘‘Kadyrov passed away on May 9 on the day of our national holiday,’’ a shaken-looking Putin said, standing alongside Kadyrov’s son, Ramzan, in the Kremlin.

The attack on the top-security event attended by military and political officials was one of the most audacious by Chechen rebels on Russian forces, and the administration in mainly-Muslim Chechnya, since Russian troops reoccupied the area in 1999.

‘‘The bomb was placed inside a concrete part of the stadium,’’ said Khamid Kadayev, Chechnya’s deputy interior minister, speaking on television from the scene of the blast.

He said this meant the bomb escaped detection in security sweeps ahead of the event. He did not say how the bomb could have been smuggled in, but reconstruction work had been going on at the stadium for the past three months. The commander of Russian forces in the region, General Valery Baranov, was among the many injured. One of his legs was torn off in the blast and he was in a critical condition undergoing surgery, Interfax news agency said.

Interior Ministry officials said an artillery shell, primed to explode, had also been found in a neighbouring stand.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility. Chechen Information Minister Taus Dzhabrailov quickly pointed the finger at rebel leader Aslan Maskhadov and Moscow’s most wanted man, Chechen warrior Shamil Basayev. ‘‘I think that only they could have organised an explosion at such an important occasion. The ground will burn under their feet,’’ he was quoted by Interfax as saying.

Itar-Tass news agency quoted an interior ministry spokesman as saying five people had been detained in connection with the attack. It, however, gave no details.