About 50 people were injured when a home-made bomb exploded in Belarus's capital Minsk early today at an outdoor Independence Day concert attended by president Alexander Lukashenko.
Mr Lukashenko, criticised by the West for ruling the ex-Soviet state with an iron grip since the mid-1990s, was unhurt by the bomb, which exploded shortly after midnight at the concert, which was attended by thousands of people.
Presidential spokesman Pavel Legkiy said Mr Lukashenko was not the target. "This was not an attempted assassination of the president," he said, adding that the bomb was aimed at those attending the concert.
A police official said the likely motive for the bomb was "hooliganism" - a term commonly used by officials in former Soviet states to play down the significance of an attack.
A second bomb was later found in the city. It had failed to detonate.
The West has accused Mr Lukashenko, a close Russian ally, of gagging independent media, quelling protests and incarcerating opponents. The European Union and the United States have banned him from entry, saying he rigged his re-election in 2006.
Mr Lukashenko argues he has helped save Belarus from the political and economic chaos of other ex-Soviet states and remains broadly popular in the country of 10 million, wedged between Russia and Poland.
There have been no known assassination attempts against him.
In 2005, a home-made explosive device injured over 40 people in the northern city of Vitebsk. A little known, anti-Lukashenko group calling itself the Belarussian National Liberation Army later claimed responsibility but no one was convicted for the attack.