"We still do not have communications with the village of Kokhat, but I know that two police officers were killed and another two wounded in the blast," Mikhail Mindzayev told RIA Novosti on the phone.
Meanwhile, the head of the South Ossetian Information and Press Committee, Irina Gagloyeva, said the wounded police officers had been hospitalized.
"In addition, 13 local residents were wounded in the blast and received medical treatment at the scene," she said, citing local police reports.
The authorities believe the blast was a terrorist act.
According to Mindzayev, a group of Georgian nationals, who were in a vehicle loaded with TV sets, drove to the remote village in the Tskhinvali district.
"They had no accompanying documentation for the goods," the minister said. "They left the sets at a police checkpoint and allegedly went to fetch the papers. One of the TV sets exploded."
An investigation is underway, Mindzayev said.
South Ossetia declared its independence from Georgia in the wake of the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, sparking off bloody conflicts. Georgia's current leadership has been seeking to recover its influence in the separatist regions and secure international support on the issue.
Russia has hinted that it may recognize South Ossetia and another breakaway republic of Abkhazia in Georgia in the wake of Kosovo's recent unilateral declaration of independence and its subsequent recognition by the U.S. and a host of other, so far mainly Western, countries.
