The dead included seven police officers, two firefighters and two local residents.
The report also said that 83 people were hospitalized after the blasts, while 26 received medical treatment on site.
According to police sources, the first blast occurred at a police traffic control post in the capital Makhatchkala at about 22:15 local time (18:15 GMT) on Thursday. A car exploded when police officers tried to stop it for an identity check.
The second explosion took place half an hour later when rescuers came to the site. The second bomb also blew up in a car parked nearby.
Police officials said they expected the death toll to rise.
A spokesman for Russia’s national anti-terrorism committee (NAC) Nikolai Sintsov said that the power of the two blasts were equal to 30 kg and 50 kg of TNT respectively.
Sporadic attacks and militant clashes are common in North Caucasus’ republics, especially Chechnya, Dagestan, and Ingushetia.
Russia has been fighting various waves of insurgencies in the region since the early 1990s, despite the official end of the ‘battle phase’ of the Second Chechen War in 2000.
MN/HN/SAB/MA
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