A man from Russia's volatile North Caucasus region shot and wounded a police officer in Moscow on August 23 and was fatally wounded by retaliatory fire, officials said.
Russia's Investigative Committee said the assailant fired at two police officers near the main Foreign Ministry building in downtown Moscow. Police shot back and wounded the attacker.
Police identified the attacker as Renat Kunashev, 30, and said he was from the Russian province of Kabardino-Balkaria in the North Caucasus, the Interfax news agency reported. It said the weapon he used to attack police fired nonlethal ammunition, but did not give further information.
TASS and Interfax later quoted police as saying that the attacker died of a head wound.
The assailant's motives weren't immediately clear, but police said they don't believe that he had any links to Islamist militants active in parts of the North Caucasus.
Militants, some of whom have sworn allegiance to the Islamic State extremist group, have spread across the region after two separatist wars in Chechnya.
The incident in Moscow comes days after Islamist militants launched a series of attacks in Chechnya, leaving at least five teenage militants dead and several police officers wounded.
IS claimed responsibility for the attacks in Chechnya on August 20 that defied regional strongman Ramzan Kadyrov's claims of stability.
