VLADIKAVKAZ, Russia - Chechen President Akhmad Kadyrov was buried today in his home village, a day after the Moscow-backed leader was killed by a bomb blast that cast Russia's efforts to stabilize and control the war-ravaged region into chaos.

Thousands of people came to Tsentoroi, the settlement in southeastern Chechnya that is home to Kadyrov's clan, Russian media reported. Mourning ceremonies were to go on for three days.

The blast ripped through a stadium grandstand in the Chechen capital Grozny Sunday during a Victory Day parade celebrating the anniversary of the Nazi defeat in World War II.

The Grozny emergency medical center said 24 people in all were killed and 46 wounded. But Chechnya's Deputy Minister of Emergency Situations, Akhmed Dzheirkhanov, said Sunday that the death toll was six and that 57 people were wounded. Dzheirkhanov said rescuers from the center had counted some of the wounded as dead. He did not confirm Russian media reports of a seventh death overnight.

Among the dead were Khusein Isayev, the head of Chechnya's State Council, and Reuters photographer Adlan Khasanov. The wounded included the top Russian military commander in Chechnya, Col.-Gen. Valery Baranov, who officials said was in critical condition and had a leg amputated.

The top prosecutor in southern Russia, Sergei Fridinsky, suggested whoever was to blame had help from someone with access to the stadium, saying in televised comments that the level of security meant "an outsider could not have come and set off an explosive device." He said investigators would question people involved in security for the event.

Fridinsky said the blast was caused by an explosive device made out of two artillery shells, one of which did not detonate, and that another shell and a third device made of plastic explosives were found in the area later. The bomb was planted under the seats where Kadyrov and other dignitaries were watching the ceremonies.