Police car blown up in Russia’s Dagestan – witness

MAKHACHKALA, Russia (Reuters) – A police car was blown up
in the Russian region of Dagestan near Chechnya on Saturday,
killing at least two police officers, a Reuters witness said.

Interfax news agency said earlier the explosion, which took
place in the Dagestani capital of Makhachkala at around 1200
GMT, may have also wounded passengers in a small bus passing
nearby.

The total number of the dead and wounded was unclear, but
the Reuters witness in Makhachkala said he saw the bodies of at
least two police officers at the scene, one in camouflage and
the other in a standard Interior Ministry uniform.

Dagestan, a territory by the Caspian Sea, has suffered from
an overspill of violence from Chechnya since a separatist war
erupted in the North Caucasus territory more than a decade ago.

It has been the scene of numerous bomb and shooting attacks
and incursions by Chechen rebels. Ten soldiers were killed by a
similar blast in Makhachkala in July.