An eight-year-old girl was killed and her two brothers injured when they hit an explosive device in the south Russian city of Beslan, site of the 2004 school massacre, local emergencies officials said on Monday.
"An eight-year-old girl died and her brothers, of seven and 10 years of age, were taken to hospital with shell wounds," Yulia Starchenko, head of the emergencies ministry in South Ossetia, said.
Starchenko said the children might have hit a grenade. "It is not clear what caused the explosion. It might have been a grenade," she said, adding investigation is under way.
Beslan in Russia's volatile North Caucasus was the scene of a bloody school siege by Chechen separatists, who herded teachers, parents and children into the gym setting up explosives. A total of 335 hostages, including 186 children, lost their lives when the siege came to its bloody conclusion three days later.
The Beslan school siege is the deadliest terrorist attack ever to take place in Russia and saw the largest number of child victims in any terrorist act anywhere in the world. Over 120 of the survivors were left disabled, including 70 children.
VLADIKAVKAZ, February 22 (RIA Novosti)
