NIZHNY NOVGOROD, October 27 (RIA Novosti) - Two 18-year-old female students were found dead near a cemetery in the Russian Urals city of Ufa on Monday, a spokesman for the regional investigative committee said.

"Two girls, second year university students, were found killed near an old cemetery in Ufa. Their bodies contained multiple wounds inflicted with an unknown object," the spokesman said.

Ufa is the capital of Russia's republic of Bashkortostan, in the southwest Urals.

He added that investigators had not ruled out ritual murder.

The spokesman also said that that the two students were last seen on October 24 and that the investigators planned to make a public appeal to Ufa residents for information.