MAKHACHKALA, September 2 (RIA Novosti) - A senior police officer was gunned down in the capital of Russia's southern republic of Daghestan on Tuesday, the republic's Interior Ministry said.
Two gunmen fired automatic weapons at Major Arsen Zakaryayev, a senior officer in the Interior Ministry's organized crime department, as he left home for work Tuesday morning, a ministry official said.
"They held up a taxi, tied up the driver and threw him in the backseat, waiting for Zakaryayev to come out," the spokesman said.
After the shooting, the attackers fled the scene. The taxi was later found abandoned with the driver still tied up, but otherwise unharmed.
Security forces in Daghestan, which borders Chechnya, are frequently attacked by militants and involved in firefights with criminal gangs.
