Top crime-fighter survives murder attempt in southern Russia

A top crime-fighting official in the southern Russian republic of Dagestan was injured on Thursday when unknown assailants opened fire at his car as he was travelling home, the Russian news agency Interfax reported from the Dagestani capital, Makhachkala.

Ruslan Gitinov, head of the organized crime directorate at Dagestan's Interior Ministry, was taken to hospital after a " brief but fierce" shoot-out between his bodyguards and the assailants on the route between Makhachkala and Kaspiysk.

The ministry said this was not the first attempt on Gitinov's life.as a bomb was placed along the route of his car about six weeks ago.

The bomb went off before the car reached it.

ITAR-TASS news agency said in a separate report that, according to initial information, Gitinov was slightly wounded in his shoulder while his driver received a severe bullet wound .

Both men were admitted to hospital in Kaspiysk, it said.

BBC Monitoring (http://www.monitor.bbc.co.uk), based in Caversham in southern England, selects and translates information from radio, television, press, news agencies and the Internet from 150 countries in more than 70 languages.