At least 10 Russian soldiers have been killed in a bomb blast near the country's breakaway Chechnya region.

Packed with metal rods, the device exploded just as a unit of interior ministry troops drove up to a steam bathhouse in Makhachkala, the regional capital of Dagestan.

At least 14 people - some troops and some passers-by - were being treated for severe injuries.

Since the war erupted in Chechnya around a decade ago, neighbouring Dagestan has suffered an overspill of violence.

Some 30 police officers have been killed in attacks so far this year in the republic and a further 40 wounded.

It was the second time Russian soldiers visiting the washhouse had been targeted. In January 2002 seven were killed in the same spot and four injured.

PHOTO CAPTION

A stretcher with an injured person is put in a truck at the site of a bomb explosion that targeted trucks carrying Russian interior ministry troops in Makhachkala, Dagestan, southern Russia, Friday, July 1, 2005. (AP)