Winter Olympic "terrorists strike" hits Russia again as six bodies with gunshot wounds are found in bomb-rigged cars
- The bodies were discovered in four cars on the outskirts of Pyatigorsk near the Caucasus region where an Islamic insurgency is simmering
- Three of the cars were rigged with explosives but only one went off
- No one was harmed in the explosion as all the victims had been shot dead
- Killings have heightened security concerns for the Sochi Winter Olympics
- It follows two suicide bomb attacks which killed 34 people last month
AP, 9 January 2014
Six men have been found shot dead in four cars abandoned in an area of southern Russia, further heightening security concerns ahead of the Winter Olympics in Sochi.
The killings were on the outskirts of Pyatigorsk, which like Sochi, lies near the Caucasus region, where an Islamic insurgency is simmering.
Three of the cars had been rigged with explosive devices, but only one of the bombs went off and no one was hurt. The victims had all been shot.
Concerns: The six bodies were discovered on the outskirts of Pyatigorsk which lies near the Caucasus region much like the Olympic Park in Sochi (stock image pictured)
Vladimir Markin, spokesman for Russia's main investigative agency, said in a statement that Federal Security Service officers had joined the investigation, and that no motive had yet been determined.
NTV television reported from the scene that security had been heightened on the nearby border with Kabardino-Balkaria, one of several predominantly Muslim republics in Russia's Caucasus.
Three men whose bodies were in three of the cars have been identified: Two were taxi drivers and the third assembled furniture for a private businessman, reports said. The men were said to be local residents and drove inexpensive Soviet-model Lada cars.
The killings follow two suicide bomb attacks which killed 34 people in the southern city of Volgograd last month
The three other victims were found late yesterday in a fourth vehicle. An explosive device had been placed next to the car in a metal bucket, but was defused by investigators.
Explosives also had been placed near two of the other cars; one of the devices went off as police approached and the other was defused.
The incident follows two suicide bomb attacks which killed 34 people in the southern city of Volgograd last month.