Suicide blast in Russia kills 20 cops

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack,which left the two-storey building smoldering and a crater in the compounds courtyard,where the attacker detonated the bomb.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev fired Ingushetias top police official and,in unusually harsh comments,said police forces were as much to blame as the attackers themselves. This terrorist attack could have been prevented, he said.

Ingushetia more than any other North Caucasus region has been reeling from militant violence in recent months,including a suicide bombing that badly wounded the Kremlin-appointed leader,Yunus-Bek Yevkurov.

Yevkurov blamed militants who have battled security forces in the forests along the mountainous border with Chechnya. It was an attempt to destabilise the situation and sow panic, he said in a statement.

The attacker crashed his truck through the gates of city police headquarters in Nazran,Ingushetias main city,as officers were lining up for their morning inspection. Police fired shots at the truck,but failed to stop it. The blast then triggered a fire that raged for hours,destroying a weapons room where ammunition detonated.

Hours later,rescue teams searched for more victims in the gutted ruins and wrecked vehicles. A nearby apartment building and several offices were badly damaged.

Emergency officials said 20 officers were killed and up to 138 people were wounded and the death toll was likely to rise as rescuers find more victims.

Mondays bombing was the deadliest to hit Ingushetia since June 21-22,2004,militant attacks that killed nearly 90 people,mainly police officers.