MOSCOW, June 14 (RIA Novosti) - Two policemen have been killed in a shootout with militants in Russia's North Caucasus Republic of Chechnya, a source in the republic's interior ministry said on Saturday.

The incident occurred on Saturday afternoon when police detected a group of about 15 militants in a forest near the village of Alkinchu-Borzoi in the Kurchaloi district to the east of the capital Grozny, the source told RIA Novosti.

Another two officers were injured and hospitalized, the source said. He gave no information on casualties among the militants.

In a separate incident, two police were injured during a search operation on Saturday when an unidentified explosive device went off in a forest in the Shatoi district of southern Chechnya.

Militant attacks and clashes remain common in Russia's North Caucasus, although the Kremlin campaign to fight separatists and terrorists in Chechnya has officially ended. Violence often spills over into nearby republics, in particular Ingushetia and Daghestan.