Two police officers killed in gun attack in Russia's Dagestan

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Two police officers in Russia's volatile Muslim-majority Dagestan republic were killed on Friday when their patrol was attacked by gunmen, a police spokesman said.

The republic borders Chechnya, where Moscow has waged two wars against separatists since the Soviet Union broke up in 1991, and security forces there often face militant violence.

"One was killed at the spot, another died in hospital when gunmen attacked police patrol from a car," the spokesman said. The number of the attackers was not known.

In February, a man shot into a crowd leaving a church in Dagestan, killing five people and wounding at least five others.

(Reporting by Vladimir Soldatkin; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)