MOZDOK (Russia), Aug 2: More than a thousand rescuers used their bare hands on Saturday to lift concrete slabs in a desperate search for 12 people buried under the rubble of a southern Russian military hospital blown apart in a suicide attack that has claimed at least 42 lives.

The Friday evening strike on Mozdok — a military nerve centre of the four-year Russian military campaign in Chechnya — saw 1,300 volunteers and rescue workers rush to the scene. Many donated their blood for the victims.

They struggled through the night and every hour took five-minute breaks to listen for voices of people still believed to be trapped under remains of a hospital that once treated Russian soldiers hurt in the guerilla war with Chechens.

Russian President Vladimir Putin sent a letter of condolence to the victims’ families that gave no hint that the military campaign was about to end.

“The terrorists will not be able to dictate their criminal ways upon us,” an official Kremlin statement quoted Mr Putin as saying.

“Their bloody crimes will not end the political peace process,” said the president.

Mr Putin dispatched Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov to Mozdok — where he promptly suspended the head of the military division overseeing the area.

“I have made a decision to suspend the commandeer of the 421st motorized regiment, the chief of the Mozdok garrison,” the Russian defence minister told reporters.

It remained unclear if further military reshuffles would follow from comments made by Mr Ivanov — seen as one of Putin’s closest allies.

Outside the politics, there were scenes of agony as relatives of those who may have perished read through the official Russian list of the victims.

“My sister worked as a medic here,” said a weeping woman, who identified herself as Tatyana, 36. “I know nothing about her fate. I will wait here until I do.”

“Perhaps my uncle is already in the morgue or perhaps he was injured and taken to another military hospital,” said Timur, 45. “But we are not allowed to go there.”

Only bits of shattered walls of the four-floor structure remained standing. The rest was reduced to rubble by an explosion that Russian officials said carried the power of a ton of TNT.

Authorities said the attack was the work of Chechen extremists who had no plans of striking a peace plan.

The latest blast appears to have been aimed at further undermining the already shattered confidence of the tens of thousands of Russian troops stationed in Chechnya.—AFP