MAKHACHKALA, Russia, Jan. 13 (UPI) -- More than 200,000 people in the North Caucasus republic of Dagestan are without gas supplies following the bombing of a major gas line, officials said.
A bomb ripped through a section of the Mozkok-Kazimagomed pipeline in Dagestan on Tuesday, cutting regional gas supplies.
Emergency services officials said several residents in the area use coal as a heating source, noting repairs were expected by the end of Wednesday, Russia's state news agency RIA Novosti reports.
"A total of 104 inhabited localities remain without gas in five Dagestani regions, where 214,617 people, including over 50,000 children, live," a statement read.
The explosion comes amid a flurry of terrorist activity in south Russia. Russian police blamed terrorists for a September pipeline explosion in Dagestan on the anniversary of the Beslan school shooting in 2004.
Dagestan is bordered by the Russian republic of Chechnya, where an independence movement has been fighting for years.
The Federal Security Service said a suspected bomb was found near the pipeline Tuesday evening.
Five police officers were killed by a suicide bomber, meanwhile, at the traffic police headquarters in Dagestan earlier this week.
