A gunman has been killed after attacking two National Guard troops in southern Russia, authorities said Thursday.
Russia’s National Guard is a new internal military force tasked with crowd control and anti-terrorism duties that was founded in 2016. National Guard servicemen involved in counter-terrorism operations were previously targeted in a series of attacks in Russia's volatile North Caucasus region in 2017.
An unidentified man approached a parked National Guard service car in the southern city of Krasnodar and opened fire at two officers late on Thursday, the Investigative Committee said in a statement.
“The man was killed by return fire. Law enforcement officers suffered gunshot wounds,” investigators said.
Two criminal cases were opened into the attempted murder of officers and illegal trafficking in firearms.
Regional investigators told the state-run TASS news agency that one of the National Guard officers had been discharged after doctors removed a bullet from his arm. The second wounded serviceman is in serious condition.
A second handgun and knife that authorities allegedly found later suggests that the killed gunman had planned the attack in advance, an unnamed law enforcement source told TASS.
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