Chechen blast kills 10

Several children were killed in the blast

At least 10 people, many of them children, have been killed by an explosion at a block of flats in Grozny, the capital of the troubled republic of Chechnya.

The blast took place early on Friday, according to Russia's emergencies ministry.

The cause is still uncertain, though the chief regional prosecutor Vladimir Kravchenko said it appeared to be a gas leak, according to the Interfax news agency.

The explosion follows a suicide bombing near the Russian military headquarters directing the war in Chechnya, in which at least 18 people died on Thursday.

A duty officer at the Emergency Situations Ministry in southern Russia, Yuri Kolodkin, said 10 bodies were pulled from the rubble - eight children and two women.

An investigation is under way.

Gas leaks and resultant explosions are common across the former Soviet Union, and have caused many fatalities.

In Chechnya, thousands have been killed by unrest in the republic, as separatists loyal to former President Aslan Maskhadov fight the Russian army for independence from Moscow.