One militant was killed and another escaped in shootout with policemen in Russia’s North Caucasus republic of Kabardino-Balkaria, the Interior Ministry said in a statement on Monday, July 15, according to RIA Novosti.

According to the statement, policemen were on a patrol on early Monday, when they detected a Lada car parked near a forest.

“As policemen attempted to check documents the driver of the car cast a grenade at them and opened fire,” the statement said. “He was killed in return fire.”

As the shootout started another assailant opened fire on law enforcers from the forest and then fled the scene, the statement said, adding that no police officers were wounded in the shootout.

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

Over a decade after the war against Islamist separatists in Chechnya ended, Russian security forces and police continue to fight militants in the volatile region.