A suicide bomber blew himself up in southern Russia on Thursday, but there were no other casualties, witnesses said. The man blew himself up in the Muslim region of Dagestan near a gathering of people mourning a security services officer who was killed two days ago, they said.

Local media reported that no one else died in the blast in the town of Makhachkala, main city of the region that borders Chechnya.

The bomber's body was torn apart by the blast. One of his detached hands still held the remote control apparatus about the size of a mobile phone that he had used to detonate his bomb. Other body parts, including his head, lay nearby.

Copyright Reuters, 2005