MOSCOW (Reuters) - At least three people were killed and eight injured when a bomb exploded near a cafe in the centre of the southern Russian city of Stavropol on Wednesday, Russian news agencies reported.
"We have information that three women died and eight people were injured," Interfax quoted the head of the city administration's department for emergency situations Boris Skripka as saying.
He said police were investigating if the blast was a "terrorist attack."
Stavropol is an ethnically Russian city around 350 kilometres (220 miles) northwest of Chechnya's local capital Grozny.
Chechnya and the neighbouring republics of Ingushetia and Dagestan have seen an upsurge of Islamist violence in recent months.
(Writing by Conor Humphries; Editing by Guy Faulconbridge and Noah Barkin)
