Photo: Social media

Unknown assailants have engaged in a shootout with security forces in Makhachkala, the capital of the republic of Dagestan in Russia’s North Caucasus region, killing three policemen, the republic’s Interior Ministry said on Monday afternoon.

State-owned RIA Dagestan said that unknown assailants had killed three members of the security forces, after which they fled in a police car. The city has been placed in lockdown as the authorities attempt to capture the assailants, it said.

TASS said seven people were injured in the incident, including a 17-year-old girl, and that two of the gunmen had been killed. A subsequent post said that one of the wounded had succumbed to their injuries, according to Dagestan’s Health Ministry.

No one has yet claimed responsibility for the attack.

The Dagestan Interior Ministry subsequently confirmed that two of the attackers had died in addition to the three police officers, and said that the two other assailants had managed to make their getaway in a traffic police car. TASS said the car has since been found abandoned in the city.

The head of the republic, Sergey Melikov, said that police tried to stop the car, but the driver refused to comply and opened fire on security forces.

At least 21 people were killed when armed men attacked two Orthodox churches, synagogues and a traffic police post in Makhachkala and Dagestan’s second city, Derbent, in June.