Chechen blast mars Victory Day

Grozny veterans waited in vain for their parade

One policeman has been killed and two others injured in a bomb explosion near a sports stadium in the Chechen capital, Grozny.

The incident occurred 40 metres (yards) from the Dynamo stadium, just before the start of planned celebrations to mark Russian Victory Day in World War II.

Later, the Russian military said they had arrested a woman on the outskirts of Grozny who had intended to blow herself up and cause casualties to others.

A spokesman for the Russian military command in the North Caucasus, Colonel Ilya Shabalkin, said the woman, identified as Milana Abayeva, was a member of an Islamist underground organisation.

Joining ranks helped us to defeat fascism - and this truly precious experience of solidarity is needed today

Vladimir Putin

They say she was to have activated an explosive device during a parade at the stadium, which was cancelled because of the first bomb.

Chechnya's pro-Moscow prime minister, Anatoly Popov, condemned the attack.

"It's blasphemy to darken the sacred Victory Day for which millions of Russians, including Chechens, paid with their lives," Russian media quoted him as saying.

Elsewhere in Russia, thousands of veterans and officials attended events across the country.

'New danger'

The biggest celebrations were in Moscow, where a large-scale military parade was attended by President Vladimir Putin.

Putin (r) has been congratulating war veterans

Five thousand troops marched across Red Square.

Addressing the parade from in front of Lenin's mausoleum, Mr Putin congratulated veterans, troops and other citizens on what he described as a "great and sacred holiday".

He said the countries of the world should stand together against the new danger of international terrorism just as they had against the Nazis.

"Joining ranks helped us to defeat fascism," he said. "And this truly precious experience of solidarity is needed today."

Recently Victory Day has been marred by attacks - most notably a bomb blast that ripped through a parade in Kaspiysk, Dagestan, last year killing more than 30 people and wounding 150.