Three servicemen have been shot dead by unknown gunmen in Russia's volatile North Caucasus republic of Dagestan, a local police source said.

The shooting took place in the republic's central city of Buinaksk late on Friday, the source said.

Two of the servicemen reportedly died at the scene and the other one later in hospital. Police is investigating the incident.

In another shooting that occurred on Friday in the Kizlyar region in the republic's north, a village elder was shot dead near his house by unknown gunmen, a local Interior Ministry spokesman said.

Attacks on police and military officials are frequent in Russia's mainly Muslim North Caucasus republics, especially Chechnya, Dagestan and Ingushetia. Experts see the poor social and economic situation in the North Caucasus as the main reason for the numerous terrorist attacks in the region. The Russian government has moved to improve the living standards and provide jobs to residents of the republics in order to prevent them from joining militants.

MAKHACHKALA, July 24 (RIA Novosti)