A container emitting radioactivity and with a bomb attached to it has been found in the breakaway Russian republic of Chechnya.

The Itar-Tass newsagency quoted Chechen security sources as saying the container - found close to a railway near the town of Argun - had been made safe.

Police sealed off the area several kilometres east of the capital, Grozny, for experts to defuse the bomb.

Correspondents say it's the second time since Chechnya asserted independence from Russia in August 1996 that police have found loose radioactive substances: last January a radioactive container was found in a military base in Khankala.