15 Hurt in Russian Caucasus Supermarket Blasts

Two strong blasts tore through a supermarket in Russia's volatile Caucasus region of Dagestan, injuring 15 people including three children, regional police said on Monday.

The first blast went off late Sunday and wounded a sales clerk, the regional interior ministry said in a statement. The second struck when a Russian security team arrived on the scene.

The ministry said 15 people including three children were hospitalized. Four of them were in a serious condition, a police spokesman in Dagestan told Agence France Presse.

Six servicemen also received medical attention at the scene.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack.

The Caspian Sea region of Dagestan experiences almost daily shootings and bombings that officials blame on local criminals and Islamists with links to Chechnya.

Fuelled by endemic poverty and corruption, the militants are seeking to establish an independent Islamic state across the North Caucasus.