Sept. 21, 2004
MosNews
Several gunmen tried to capture a hydroelectric power plant in the Russian internal republic of Karachay-Cherkessia in the Northern Caucasus, the Interfax news agency reports.
The agency cited the press service of the republic‚s Interior Ministry as saying that the incident took place in the early hours of Tuesday. The power plant‚s guards were engaged in a gunbattle with the attackers and successfully prevented an incursion into the plant.
One of the gunmen was wounded and taken prisoner. He has been identified as a 21-year-old resident of Cherkessk, the capital of Karachay-Cherkessia.
The police launched a search operation in the area around the power plant and managed to detain two more people suspected of being involved in the attack. The detained men are now being interrogated.
Terrorist attacks are common in the North Caucasus region which borders the volatile Chechen Republic. The latest major attack took place in the town of Beslan in North Ossetia on September 1 when a group of militants took over 1000 people hostage in a school. The crisis ended in carnage after a three-day standoff, with at least 320 people killed, half of them children.
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