The vice president of the breakaway Georgian region of Abkhazia has been wounded in a mortar attack on his house overnight.
Officials said Vice President Aleksandr Ankvab suffered shrapnel wounds when his home in Gudauta was attacked early today.
Ankvab's life was said not to be in danger.
Abkhaz President Sergei Bagapsh was quoted as saying that the attack was a bid to destabilize the region, although it was unclear who was to blame.
Abkhazia and another Georgian region, South Ossetia, broke away from Tbilisi's control in the early 1990s.
Russia recognized the two rebel regions as independent states in 2008 after a brief war with Georgia over South Ossetia.
compiled from agency reports