Russia - At least 11 people have been killed and 20 wounded in an explosion in the southern Russian city of Vladikavkaz, officials say.

Some reports say it was a car bomb.

The blast happened near the central market in the city, which is the main town in the North Ossetia region.

North Ossetia lies in Russia's North Caucasus, which has been beset by Islamist and separatist violence. It also borders South Ossetia, a tense breakaway region of Georgia.

The explosion happened on a lane near Vladikavkaz's market around midday, said Oleg Rudenkov of the North Ossetian emergencies ministry.

Nearby buildings were badly damaged, witnesses said.

Russian media said the area was busy at the time, because as well as the market there was an employment office nearby.

North Ossetia has escaped the worst of the violence that has recently racked other Russian republics nearby.

Shootings and bomb attacks have increased in Dagestan and Ingushetia, spilling over from Chechnya, where violence has been reduced.

Nevertheless, North Ossetia has seen severe spasms of bloodshed.

It was the scene of the Beslan school atrocity in 2004, where militants took hundreds children hostage. In the bloodbath that ensued, more than 330 people were killed.

Vladikavkaz market has also been repeatedly targeted.

It was bombed in 1999, killing 55 people. In 2001 six people were killed in a bombing, and another 11 died in a 2004 attack, the Associated Press reports.