MAKHACHKALA, November 21 (RIA Novosti) – Three people were killed and nine others injured in an explosion in Dagestan in Russia's North Caucasus region on Wednesday, according to a local Interior Ministry spokesman.

The fatal blast was the second to have occurred today in a former bank building in the republic's Untsukulsky district. No one was hurt in the first explosion.

The second explosion occurred when investigators entered the building to investigate the first blast, the spokesman said.

Two of the dead were police officers, he added, while the third was a civilian.

The republic’s Interior Ministry, meanwhile, said the number of casualties had not yet been specified.

Dagestan, a predominantly Islamic republic, is home to a low-level Islamic insurgency that regularly targets local officials and security forces.