One police officer was killed and seven injured in an ambush on Thursday, November 8 in Russia’s north Caucasus republic of Dagestan, the Investigative Committee said, according to RIA Novosti.

After a roadside bomb exploded under the police patrol vehicle the officers came under automatic gun fire from a group of unidentified gunmen who subsequently fled into the nearby forest.

A manhunt has been launched for them, the committee said.

A senior police official was killed on Monday in Makhachkala, the capital of Dagestan.

The Islamist insurgency, once confined largely to Chechnya, has spread in recent years across the North Caucasus. Attacks on security forces, police and civilians are also reported regularly in the neighboring republics of Ingushetia, Dagestan and Kabardino-Balkaria.