"One hour after the closure of one of the polling stations in the Khasavyurt region of Dagestan, three people in masks staged an attack on it. Three policemen were killed as a result of the gunfight," police spokesman Alexander Gorovoy told Interfax.
One of the attackers was also killed and police seized automatic weapons and grenades, he said.
Dagestan, a mostly Muslim region known for its ancient culture and tapestry of ethnic groups, is fighting an insurgency by militants seeking to establish an Islamic state across the Russian Caucasus.
The Caspian Sea region experiences frequent shootings and bombings that officials blame on local criminals and Islamists with links to neighbouring Chechnya.
Russia has been trying to contain violence along its restless southern periphery since concluding the second of two post-Soviet wars in Chechnya a decade ago. (*)
Editor: Kunto Wibisono
Copyright © ANTARA 2012
