Unidentified gunmen have shot dead eight hunters in a forest in the southern Russian republic of Kabardino-Balkaria, a spokesman for the republic's investigative committee said on Saturday, RIA Novosti reported.
"Eight bodies with gunshot wounds were uncovered in a trench shelter near the city of Baksan," the spokesman said.
According to preliminary data, the killed people were hunters from Kabardino-Balkaria and Stavropol Territory.
This is the second mass slaughter of hunters in the republic. In November 2007 the bodies of nine hunters were uncovered in a wooded area in Kabardino-Balkaria. The hunters were killed after running across a militant group.
Several militants related to this crime were later killed in a special operation.