"The purpose of the exercise is to make the heads all medical services in the capital of Dagestan and the local services more efficient in organizing medical aid in extreme conditions," said Kazanfar Kurbanov, the head of the exercise, the head physician at Dagestan's first aid association and the director of the Disaster Medicine Center.
"This type of preparation is particularly important in connection with the continued activity of extremists in the Southern Federal District and the recent developments in Beslan," he said.
Along with the Dagestani Emergency Situations Ministry's medical personnel, firefighters, rescue workers and other personnel, subunits from the republic's Interior Ministry and the Federal Security Service's Dagestan department will be involved in the exercises.
The scenario of the exercise is that terrorists detonated a high-yield bomb at a university in the center of Makhachkala and participants in the exercise will have to control the damage and provide first aid to the injured.
There was an explosion and a fire in a parking lot in Makhachkala last night, a source at the Interior Ministry of Dagestan said Wednesday.
According to preliminary information, an unidentified explosive device exploded in a Moskvich 412 (a car) which started a fire that injured several people, burned 10 cars and damaged 20 others.
According to the source, the explosive device had a yield equivalent to 25 kg of TNT.
At the scene, body parts and the semi-burnt passport of Aslambek Askhabov, a resident of Chechnya, an active member of the illegal armed formations and Wahhabite. He had hid from law enforcement agencies for a long time, the source said.
The source said it was possible that "a terrorist attack with a car bomb was being prepared in Makhachkala but the bomb in the car exploded spontaneously for unknown reasons."
The investigation into the case is underway.
