Chechen leader: Police prevented large-scale militants attack in Grozny

President of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov said on Sunday police officers have lost their lives to prevent a terrorist attack that could lead to dozens of casualties among the civilians celebrating the City Day in Grozny, the republic’s capital.
“At the cost of their lives, they prevented the terrorist attack capable of claiming lives of dozens of civilians,” Kadyrov wrote on Instagram.
The attack in the North Caucasus republic, which has been relatively calm in recent years, occurred on Sunday evening outside a hall where a concert to mark the City Day in Grozny was about to start.
The “suspicious” young man blew himself up as police officers tried to inspect him. A total of five police officers have been killed and another 12 people, also police members, have been wounded in the explosion.
The watchful police officers detained the man “on the first checkpoint a long way from the scene of festivities,” the head of Chechnya wrote.
The attacker who has been identified as a local citizen, Opti Mudarov, 19, “does not represent anyone,” he added.
“There is peace, stability and prosperity in the republic. We are confident about the future,” Kadyrov stressed.
He said “terrorists and Wahhabis understand only the language of force and are to be eliminated, wherever they try to lift up their heads.