MOSCOW, October 20 (RIA Novosti) - A police officer and two suspected militants have been killed in a shootout in Chechnya's capital, police in the southern Russian republic said on Tuesday.

The skirmish broke out on Monday when police tried to detain two gunmen in Grozny. The gunmen opened fire, killing an OMON special police officer. One of the attackers was killed when police returned fire, while the other fled the scene. He was later tracked down and shot when he tried to throw a grenade at police.

Chechnya, which saw two brutal separatist wars in the late 1990s and early 2000s, has been swept by a fresh wave of violence recently. Shootouts and attacks on troops, police and other officials have been reported daily. The neighboring, mainly Muslim, regions of Russia have also been plagued by instability.

Also on Monday, gunmen opened fire at the house of a police official in Chechnya's Urus-Martan district, southwest of Grozny, and planted an explosive device in front of the building.

The officer discovered the homemade bomb and called bomb disposal experts.