Three civilians, 1 policeman wounded in gunbattle in southern Russia

A gun battle between police and suspected militants took place in the restive southern Russian province of Dagestan, wounding three civilians, including a 6-year-old boy, and a police officer.

The incident occurred late Monday in a suburb of the regional capital Makhachkala when two men refused to obey police orders to stop for document checks and opened fire at the police officers, regional Interior Ministry spokeswoman Anzhela Martirosova said.

A police official and three bystanders were injured in the shooting. The suspected militants were killed, she said.

Dagestan, a mostly Muslim region that is home to many ethnic groups, has been plagued by shootings, bombings and other violence, some spilling over from neighboring Chechnya and some stemming from local disputes and criminal activity.