Gunmen kidnap five people at a doctor's

Dozens of masked gunmen have burst into a clinic in Chechnya and kidnapped five people as they waited to see a doctor.

Between 30 to 40 masked gunmen burst into the polyclinic at the Sunzha district hospital, according to the Interior Ministry of the region of Ingushetia.

Threatening to fire their weapons, the gunmen forced five people who were in the clinic's waiting room into two trucks.

The gunmen are believed to have shot one of the captives with a pistol, and a doctor was injured by a blow to the head with a rifle butt, the ministry said.

A ministry official said police believe the attackers were members of the security service of Chechnya's Moscow-appointed acting president, Akhmad Kadyrov.

Kadyrov's press service strongly denied the allegation, saying it could be an attempt to taint Kadyrov's image ahead of the October 5 presidential election in Chechnya.

Residents of Chechnya and Chechen refugees in Ingushetia say the security service, headed by Kadyrov's son Ramzan and believed to number in the thousands, robs, kills and kidnaps civilians with impunity.

Kadyrov, a former mufti who sympathized with the separatists before switching sides, is running for election in October, but many Chechens distrust him. Some Russian human rights groups have predicted he will use fraud and pressure on voters to ensure his victory.

The Kremlin says it is not officially backing anyone in the election, but Russia's main pro-Kremlin Party, United Russia, has endorsed Kadyrov.

Russian officials are touting the election as a key step toward restoring peace in Chechnya. They say it will also strip rebel President Aslan Maskhadov of any perceived legitimacy.