MOSCOW, June 30 (RIA Novosti) - One soldier was killed and a further three injured when militants attacked a police convoy in the Vedeno District of Russia's North Caucasus republic of Chechnya, a police source said on Tuesday.

"The convoy - a GAZelle and two UAZ vehicles - was traveling from Khankala," when it was attacked by around 10 militants, the spokesperson said.

The source said that a priest was among the injured.

The latest incident follows an explosion in western Chechnya on Sunday which left three police officers wounded.

The recent increase in violence coincided with Moscow's decision to formally end its decade-long counterterrorism operation in Chechnya, which witnessed two brutal separatist wars in the 1990s and early 2000s.

Russia's North Caucasus has seen an upsurge in violence of late, with the killing of Daghestan's Interior Minister Adilgerei Magomedtagirov and an assassination attempt on the Ingush President Yunus-bek Yevkurov this month.