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Police killed as gun battle erupts in Chechnya's capital Police killed as gun battle erupts in Chechnya's capital
(about 1 hour later)
Gunmen travelling in several cars have killed three traffic police officers in Grozny, capital of Chechnya, according to Russian reports. The shootings took place at a checkpoint after midnight on Thursday and the assailants were reported to have taken over a building afterwards in the north Caucusus city. Several police died in clashes with militants who attacked a traffic post in the Chechen capital, Grozny, and then stormed a building housing local media, Russian officials said on Thursday.
The Moscow-based National Anti-terrorist Committee said in a statement that the gunmen occupied a publishing house in the centre of Grozny. It said security services, police and emergency services personnel surrounded the building. The latest skirmishes in volatile Chechnya will be seen as a major affront to President Vladimir Putin who is set to deliver his annual state of the nation address later in the day.
Although unrest is common in Russia’s North Caucasus, forceful security measures adopted by Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov have spared the city of Grozny of significant violence for several years. “There are losses among personnel,” the National Anti-Terrorist Committee said in a statement carried by Russian news agencies.
Kadyrov said on an Instagram account that the traffic police were killed when they attempted to stop the cars carrying the gunmen. The state RIA Novosti news agency, quoting a regional law enforcement source, said five police died and several were wounded.
Life News, a news outlet believed to have links to Russian security services, cited law enforcement officials as saying about 15 people seized three cars late on Wednesday in the village of Shalazhi and drove them to Grozny, about 30 miles (50km) away. Kadyrov said in his statement that the group of gunmen that took over the publishing house comprised about five or six people. There was no immediate comment from the Russian interior ministry.
The National Anti-terrorist Committee said in its statement that a counterterrorism regime was imposed on the centre of Grozny, allowing heightened security measures that are typically followed by heavy force to quash unrest. The National Anti-Terrorist Committee said a group of assailants attacked a traffic post in Grozny in the early hours of Thursday and then stormed a building housing local media known as the Press House.
Multiple unconfirmed amateur pictures posted online appeared to show the publishing house occupied by the gunmen in flames. The militants were being blockaded inside the building by members of the police and security services, it said.
Kadyrov said the situation was calm and that all essential public services would still be operating, but he urged Grozny residents to exercise caution. Five policemen were killed and a dozen wounded in Grozny in October when they stopped a young suicide bomber from attacking a concert hall where thousands had gathered to mark a local holiday.
“I ask residents in areas where [security] operations are being carried out to abide by safety measures and not to go out onto the streets without cause or to go near their windows,” he wrote. “All the talk about the city being under the control of military is absolutely false.” That blast, which shattered a period of relative calm in the region, sparked concerns of a new cycle of violence in the north Caucasus where the Kremlin fought two wars with separatists over the past 20 years. Putin has promised to crush the bloody insurgency.
When Putin turned 62 on 7 October more than 100,000 people, decked out in the colours of the Russian flag, marched in Grozny, led by Kremlin-backed regional leader Ramzan Kadyrov who carried a portrait of the Russian president.
Some 1,100 guests including top officials and lawmakers will attend Putin’s address to the nation expected to lay out Kremlin’s political and economic priorities during a bitter confrontation with the West over Ukraine.