MOSCOW, June 19 (RIA Novosti) - A police officer was injured in Russia's North Caucasus republic of Kabardino Balkaria when an illegal arms cache he discovered exploded, local police said on Friday.

The explosion occurred late on Thursday, when special police were searching a wooded area near the village of Kishpek after discovering a Kalashnikov assault rifle and two hand grenades. The officer was hospitalized.

Although security has improved in Chechnya, which saw two anti-terrorism campaigns in 1994-2000, violence has intensified in other North Caucasus republics.

The home of a senior investigator in Ingushetia's largest city, Nazran, came under fire early on Friday, but no one was killed or injured, a police source in the republic said.

A top judge and a former deputy prime minister were shot dead in separate attacks in Ingushetia earlier this month.

Security officers in Daghestan found late on Thursday a home-made explosive device equivalent to 1.5 kg of TNT planted on a road near the capital Makhachkala.