Unidentified gunmen shot dead the police chief and three policemen from the capital of Russia's volatile North Caucasus republic of Dagestan on Friday, a police spokesman told RIA Novosti.

"Two security personnel and the driver of Makhachkala police chief, Ahmed Magomedov, died at the scene of the shooting. Magomedov was taken to hospital in critical condition where he died later," the spokesman said.

The shooting occurred at around 10:00 p.m. Moscow time [GMT 19.00] when the police chief's Volga was traveling down one of the capital's streets.

An investigation is underway into the shooting.

The mainly Muslim regions in Russia's North Caucasus of Dagestan, Ingushetia, Chechnya, and North Ossetia were plagued by violence last year, with almost daily attacks on security forces and officials.

In January, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev decided to include Chechnya, Ingushetia, North Ossetia, Dagestan, Kabardino-Balkaria and Karachai-Circassia into the new North Caucasus Federal District and appointed Krasnoyarsk governor and former business executive Alexander Khloponin as his envoy there in a bid to improve the economic situation in the volatile region.

MAKHACHKALA, February 5 (RIA Novosti)