MOSCOW, December 8 (RIA Novosti) – Police in the North Caucasus republic of Ingushetia thwarted early on Saturday an attack on a commercial bank, according to the Interior Ministry’s press service.
Officers reportedly blocked in, then seized, three men armed with guns and grenades shortly after midnight as part of a special operation in a village in the republic’s Malgobek region. According to police, the men had been planning to rob the local branch of a major Russian bank.
One of the men died on the scene after he set off a homemade explosive in an attempt to ward off the police, the ministry said. The other two men were arrested.
Police confiscated a non-lethal pistol converted to fire live ammunition as well as three magazines with 36 rounds each, in addition to the grenades.
Ingushetia has long been plagued by regular, low-intensity violence amid widespread unemployment and a simmering Islamic insurgency.
