Moscow: At least 35 people were killed and over 60 injured when two Chechen rebels rammed explosive laden trucks into the highly protected Chechen government headquarter compound in capital Grozny on December 27.

Interior Minister Ruslan Tsakayev told Interfax news agency that the number of casualties in the suicide attack was "significant".

Chechnya's administration chief Ahmad Kadyrov and Premier Mikhail Baryshe were not in the building during the strike, according to NTV channel.

Kadyrov, who was in Moscow at the time of the bombing, told Interfax that the building had been "practically destroyed."

Russian President Vladimir Putin has been informed of the terror attack, Kremlin Press Office said.

Chechen prosecutor Valery Kravchenko said 14 bodies have been found but more are feared buried under the rubble.

The suicide attack took place at 2:30 pm (17:00 hours IST). The building was full of employees and visitors, according to NTV.

The Emergency Situations Ministry department for Southern Russia said at least 35 people were killed and more than 60 wounded in the attack.

Spokesman of the ministry, situated in the city of Rostov-on-Don, Igor Mikhailov said many of the injuries were caused by flying glass fragments.

About 150-200 people are understood to be working in the building.

The Kamaz truck exploded next to the building, while the smaller, UAZ off-road vehicle blew up in an adjacent parking lot for government cars, ITAR-Tass said.

Kravchenko said that the explosions were equivalent to one ton of TNT, and that it had left a 6-metre crater. The explosion had also damaged a nearby Finance Ministry building.

Television channels showed shocked and bleeding people coming out of the building, one of the few in the war-ravaged Grozny to have been completely renovated.

It was the biggest rebel attack after militants seized Moscow theatre in October, taking around 800 people hostage.

PTI