Unknown gunmen shot dead a fire brigade chief and heavily injured his driver in the volatile southern Russian republic of Dagestan early on Saturday, police said.
Eyewitnesses said the gunmen opened fire at the two people in an UAZ all-terrain vehicle on a motorway in the Khasavyurt Region and then drove away in a white Russian Lada Priora car without number plates, police said.
On Friday afternoon, two people were killed when leaving a local mosque in the same region of Dagestan. The attackers left the scene in a similar white Lada Priora without number plates.
Police said both attacks could have been committed by the same people. The attackers, if convicted, could be sentenced to life.
More than a decade after the end of a federal war against separatists in the North Caucasus republic of Chechnya in southern Russia, federal security forces continue to fight militants in the neighboring areas, who frequently attack on security forces, police and civilians.