Police killed three militants in a shootout in Russia's North Caucasus republic of Dagestan, a spokesman for the local department of the Federal Security Service said.

According to him, late on Wednesday police tried to stop a Lada car on the Rostov-Baku highway, but gunfire was opened on them from the car. Police opened fire in return and killed all three people in the vehicle.

No one was injured among the policemen or civilians in the shootout, he said, adding that two automatic rifles and two self-made explosives were discovered in the car.

Russia's mainly Muslim and ethnically diverse North Caucasus republics have been swept by an upsurge of violence recently, which has also swept neighboring regions, where hundreds of people have been killed in militant attacks and skirmishes between security forces and gunmen.

MAKHACHKALA, December 16 (RIA Novosti)