Nine people have been killed in two explosions in Russia's North Caucasus, police have said.
The bomb blasts on Wednesday morning happened in the centre of the town of Kizlyar in Dagestan region.
Eighteen people were reportedly injured, and a local police spokesman said most of the victims were believed to be policemen.
Vyacheslav Gasanov, a local interior ministry spokesman, said that traffic police pulled over a suspicious-looking car, and the driver then detonated explosives.
As police and locals gathered at the scene there was a second blast, he said.
The blasts come just two days after bomb attacks in Moscow's underground system killed 39 people and injured scores.
Volatile region
North Caucasus has been the site of two wars in Chechnya and hundreds of violent attacks since the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union.
Violence has spread from Chechnya to the neighboring regions of Dagestan and Ingushetia.
PHOTO CAPTION
File picture shows Russian troops at the Gimri tunnel near Makhachkala, Dagestan.
Agencies