Four soldiers and four militants have been killed in a shootout in Russia’s troubled North Caucasus republic of Chechnya, officials say.

Sixteen other servicemen were wounded in the gunfight which broke out in the Vedensky district on Sunday morning, Russia’s interior ministry said in a statement on Monday.

Russia has been battling an Islamist insurgency in the region.

Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov said troops and policemen faced off with an “armed group of 10 to 15” thought to involve several senior militant figures amid “deep snow and thick fog.”

A police source told RIA Novosti the rest of the militants were now “blocked” in the woods, and that more troops and hardware were gathering at the site.