Russian authorities say four alleged militants have been killed and two police officers wounded in a gun battle in the North Caucasus province of Chechnya.
Law enforcement sources told Russian news agencies the shoot-out occurred after police surrounded the gunmen near the village of Sernovodskaya late on November 17.
The reports said police found three assault rifles, bomb ingredients, and two hand-held antitank grenade launchers at the site of the gun battle.
Fighting between government forces and militants persists more than a decade after Russia drove out a separatist Chechen government in the second of two devastating post-Soviet wars.
The wars spawned an Islamist insurgency that has spread from Chechnya to other mostly Muslim North Caucasus provinces.