MAKHACHKALA, November 9 (RIA Novosti) - A senior police officer was gunned down in the Republic of Dagestan in Russia's restive North Caucasus Region, the republic's interior ministry said on Sunday.

Colonel Ainutdin Gelikhanov, who had worked for the republican interior ministry's department for combating organized crime, was killed by unidentified assailants late on Saturday in the town of Khasavyurt while returning from a wedding of his relatives, the ministry said.

The police officer died at the scene of the attack. Efforts are under way to find the attackers, the ministry said.

Police and security forces in Daghestan, which borders Chechnya, are frequently attacked by militants and involved in firefights with criminal gangs.