Building blast in Russia's Ingushetia kills eight

NAZRAN, Russia (Reuters) - An explosion in the southern Russian region of Ingushetia destroyed a government office in the main town of Nazran on Tuesday, killing eight people and injuring another 22, officials said.

An official from the Ingush prosecutor's office said a gas leak was the likely cause of the blast, but added that this had yet to be confirmed.

"The total number of people recovered from under the rubble is 30, eight of them dead," a spokeswoman for the regional Emergency Services Ministry said in Nazran.

At least 17 people were rushed to hospital, while others with lighter injuries were allowed to go home, officials said.

Mainly Muslim Ingushetia is adjacent to Chechnya in the North Caucasus where Russian security forces have been fighting a growing rebel insurgency.

At the blast site, rescue workers picked over the ruins of the destroyed bailiffs' offices while relatives of those trapped under the rubble stood in the snow and wept as they watched the rescue operation.

"It was a very strong explosion. I was in the yard," one worker shouted as he pulled away the concrete.

Rebels in Ingushetia attack police checkpoints and offices with bombs and machinegun fire and analysts say increasing violence could undermine regional stability.

(Reporting by Yekaterina Sukhareva; Writing by James Kilner and Dmitry Solovyov; Editing by Michael Roddy)