Two police officers in the Kizilyurtovsky District of Russia's volatile Daghestan region were killed on July 20 when their patrol was attacked by gunmen, a police spokesman said.

The Muslim-majority republic borders Chechnya, where Moscow has waged two wars against separatists since the Soviet Union broke up in 1991, and security forces there often face militant violence.

"One was killed at the spot, another died in hospital when gunmen attacked the police patrol from a car," the spokesman said. The number of attackers was not known.

In February, a man shot into a crowd leaving a church in Daghestan, killing five people and wounding at least five others.

Based on reporting by Reuters and TASS