A district police chief in the volatile south Russian republic of Dagestan was shot dead during the night outside his house, the republic's police department said.

"In the village of Gurbuki in the Karabudakhkent district, unknown people killed the head of the local police department, Lt. Abdulvagid Magomedov", a spokesman said.

The gunmen pulled up outside Magomedov's house in a car, and opened fire while he was standing at the gate. He died on the spot.

The search for the killers is ongoing.

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 21 (RIA Novosti)