Six Russian police officers killed in gun battles

Gun battles across the capital of Russia's violent southern province of Dagestan have killed at least six policemen and four suspected militants, police said.

The four suspected militants hijacked a policeman's personal car and attacked two police squads in the city of Makhachkala today, leaving six officers dead and six wounded, police spokesman Vyacheslav Gasanov said.

The hijackers' car caught fire and blew up when police surrounded it and started shooting at the attackers, he said.

Dagestan and nearby provinces in the Russian Caucasus suffer near-daily violence linked to criminals and an insurgency that spread across the region after two separatist wars in neighbouring Chechnya.