ROSTOV-ON-DON, July 19 (RIA Novosti) - One woman died and three people were wounded after unidentified assailants opened fire on the house of a police officer in Russia's North Caucasus Republic of Ingushetia, investigators said on Sunday.

Attackers opened fire at the house of Bei-Ali Ekazhev, head of a special-task police detachment, late on Saturday in the village of Ekazhevo in the Nazran district in central Ingushetia, killing Ekazhev's sister, seriously wounding his wife and daughter and slightly wounding Ekazhev himself, the investigators said.

The assailants, who used automatic rifles and grenade launchers in their attack on the police officer's house, fled the scene in a Zhiguli car, the investigators said.

A criminal investigation into the attack has been opened, the investigators said.

Russia's Ingushetia has seen a rise in violence in recent months, with the republic's president, Yunus-Bek Yevkurov, seriously injured in an assassination attempt on June 22. He is currently recovering in a top Moscow clinic.

A leading Chechen human rights activist, Natalya Estemirova, was shot dead in the republic on Wednesday.