At least 20 people have been killed by an explosion in the town of Kaspiysk in the southern Russian republic of Dagestan, officials say. The blast ripped through the main square of the town in the region bordering . Local police said at least 100 people were injured in the explosion, which happened during a parade marking Russia's Victory Day. Initial reports said a mine had blown up a bus as it transported a military band during the parade to commemorate the 57th anniversary of Russian victory in World War II. (Read photo caption)

The head of the Dagestan state council, Magomed Magomedov, said the remote-controlled mine had been planted at the side of the main street in the town on the Caspian Sea.

The victims were reported to include soldiers, children, military veterans and musicians.

Ambulance teams were rushed to the scene of the blast to take the injured to hospitals in Kaspiysk, which is on the Caspian Sea, and the nearby capital of the Dagestan region, Makhachkala.

The explosion came only minutes before President Vladimir Putin addressed a parade in Moscow's Red Square in one of several anniversary celebrations across Russia.

PHOTO CAPTION
A blast tore through a Victory Day parade in southern Russia May 9, 2002, killing at least 29 people, including seven children. President Vladimir Putin blamed the land mine attack on terrorists, the usual Kremlin term to describe separatist rebels in Chechnya, which borders the province of Dagestan, . (MapInfo, NASA-Visible Earth/Reuters Graphic)