Thirty-one people were killed and 80 injured when a suicide woman bomber blew herself in a moving train in southern Russia near the war-torn republic of Chechnya on Friday.

The blast occurred near the resort town of Essentuki at around 0740 local time (1010 IST) in Stavropol region (South Russia), Emergency Situations and Disaster Ministry said.

Twenty-one people died on the spot and the rest succumbed to injuries in a hospital in the Stavropol district, which lies north of Chechnya, ministry officials said.