MOSCOW: Police in the Russian Caucasus region of Ingushetia say one person has been injured when an automobile exploded near a mosque in the region's main city.

The explosion took place Friday afternoon in Nazran, the Ingush Interior Ministry said. The cause of the blast had not been immediately confirmed.

Ingushetia is the western neighbor of Chechnya. Although it avoided much of the violence of the two separatist wars that devastated Chechnya in the past two decades, Ingushetia has suffered attacks on police and soldiers and a high crime rate.