GROZNY, August 7 (RIA Novosti) - Two police officers were killed in Chechnya on Friday, one when the convoy he was traveling in came under fire from militants and the second when a bomb exploded in the capital.

"At about 13:00 Moscow time [11:00 GMT], unidentified assailants opened fire on a police convoy near the village of Nikhaloi in the Shatoi district of Chechnya," a police source said.

"According to preliminary reports, at least one police officer was killed," he said.

This was the second attack on a police convoy in a week. On Sunday, unidentified militants killed five officers in a similar attack.

Also on Friday at around 4:00 p.m. (12:00 GMT), a bomb exploded near a restaurant in the republic's capital of Grozny, leaving one police officer dead and injuring another.

According to preliminary reports, the bomb was hidden in a pile of garbage and went off as the two officers walked past.

The area has been cordoned off and a search for other explosives is ongoing.

Moscow officially ended its decade-long counterterrorism operation in the volatile North Caucasus republic in April, but violence against law enforcement and other officials has increased in Chechnya and neighboring republics in the past few months.