Deadly bomb blast hits bus in southern Russia

A female suicide bomber blew herself up on a bus in the southern Russian city of Volgograd, killing at least six people and injuring 30 others, officials said.

Irina Gogolyeva, a spokeswoman for the Emergency Situations Ministry, said 40 people were on the bus when the explosion occurred on Monday afternoon.

The suspected bomber was from Dagestan, one of the predominantly Muslim republics in the North Caucasus, said Vladimir Markin, the spokesman for the Investigative Committee, Russia's main investigative agency.

The suspect was identified on Monday as 30-year-old Naida Asiyalova based on identity documents found near the explosion site.

Rasul Temirbekov, a spokesman for the Investigative Committee's branch in Dagestan, said Asiyalova had a fatal bone illness and was married to an ethnic Russian, Dmitry Sokolov, whom she had met while both were university students in Moscow.

She encouraged Sokolov - also known as Abdul Jabbar - to become a rebel, and he quickly gained a reputation as an expert in explosives, Temirbekov said.

The local government on Monday placed security forces in the Volgograd region on high alert for 15 days.