Gunmen kill three in south Russia

Gunmen in the troubled southern Russian republic of Ingushetia have killed a 55-year-old man and his two sons.

The attack - the latest in a wave of bloodshed in Ingushetia - targeted a Gypsy family. The sons were aged 19 and 26, Russian media reported.

Three gunmen burst into their home at night in Ordzhonikidzovskaya village and opened fire after demanding money, Itar-Tass news agency reported.

Ingushetia is a largely Muslim republic bordering war-ravaged Chechnya.

Russia has sent extra police to Ingushetia in recent weeks amid an upsurge in violence.

On Friday, a blood transfusion specialist, Natalya Muradova, died of gunshot wounds in the capital, Nazran.

In late August gunmen burst into the house of an ethnic Russian schoolteacher and killed her husband and two children, in the village of Karabulak. She managed to escape.

A few hours later, four people were killed by an explosion in Nazran.

Lyudmila Teryokhina, a Russian teacher, and her two children were shot dead in Ingushetia in July.