MOSCOW, January 27 (RIA Novosti) - One policeman was killed in a shootout with militants in the Republic of Chechnya in Russia's troubled North Caucasus region, a source in local law-enforcement bodies said on Sunday.

On Saturday afternoon, police encountered a group of about eight militants during a search operation at the edge of the mountainous village of Gordali, the source said,

During the shootout, one policeman was killed while the militants managed to escape. Efforts are under way to find the attackers, the source said.

Chechnya suffered two devastating separatist wars in the 1990s-early 2000s. Thousands were killed and many more made homeless as federal troops attempted to regain control over the mountainous republic.

Although the active phase of the war is over, sporadic clashes with militants and terrorist attacks are common in the troubled republic, as well as in adjacent republics such as Ingushetia and Daghestan.