Five people, including a senior official and a police man, were shot dead by gunmen in a roadside cafe in Russia's restive Caucasus region overnight Monday, Russian news agencies reported.
The head of Dagestan's Untsukulsky district, Kazimbe Akhmedov, his two bodyguards, a local police officer and the director of a care home were killed in the attack, reported dpa.
"They were gunned down by two assailants dressed in camouflage and with masked faces," a local Interior Ministry spokesman was quoted by news agency Interfax as saying on Monday.
A police source was cited by Ria-Novosti as saying the group had gathered to celebrate the birthday of the local prosecutor, Omar Omarov.
"Omarov had left the cafe by that time," the agency quoted the source as saying.
The owner of the cafe Vestrecha, or meeting point, was injured in the attack and hospitalized, agencies said.
Violence is rife in the poverty stricken region of Dagestan, where Russian military operations are ongoing to fight rebels since two wars with separatists neighboring Chechnya in the early 1990s.