Five policemen killed, four injured in Russia's Chechnya

Five policemen were killed and four others injured on Sunday in an attack in Russia's North Caucasus republic of Chechnya, the Itar-Tass news agency reported Monday.

Unidentified militants fired at a motorcade of local policemen in south Chechnya's Sharoi region on Sunday afternoon, the report quoted a source with the Chechen law enforcement agency as saying, reported Xinhua.

Five policemen, including the chief of the operational group, died and another four were injured in the shootout, the source said, adding that a search for the attackers is underway.

The Kremlin in April formally ended an anti-terrorist operation in Chechnya, which has experienced two bloody separatist wars in the past 15 years.

The restive Chechnya, along with its neighboring republics of Ingushetia and Dagestan, has seen a rise in daily violence in recent months.