NAZRAN, September 19 (RIA Novosti) - Two police officers have died after coming under fire on Wednesday in Nazran, the largest city in Russia's North Caucasus republic of Ingushetia, a local prosecutor spokesman said.
"Four [riot police] officers were wounded in a gunfire attack and were hospitalized. Two of them have since died," the source said.
The attack occurred at about 12:00 p.m. Moscow time (8:a.m. GMT), when five officers on a mission from the Rostov Region, southern Russia, were riding in a Gazelle minivan.
The spokesman said the attackers, who made their escape in a Lada, were still being searched for.
Earlier reports said Major Androkhman Meiriyev, chief investigator in the Sunzha district in western Ingushetia, was killed in an attack Tuesday.
A source said Meiriyev was attacked when leaving a mosque in the village of Ordzhonikidzevskaya, and died at the scene. However, another source said the investigator died after being hospitalized with serious injuries.
On Tuesday, local policemen were attacked when attempting to run a document check on the driver and passenger of another Lada. No one was injured, however. A Kalashnikov assault rifle and 250 cartridges were found in the abandoned car.
An investigation is underway and a criminal case has been opened.
The volatile province has seen a surge in militant attacks against police and civilians in recent months. Fighting and terrorist attacks also occur in neighboring Chechnya, devastated by two Moscow-led military campaigns against separatists in the 1990s- early 2000s.
