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Two attackers at police station near Moscow were Chechens — media

One attacker was shot dead on the scene and the other was killed when he offered resistance during his detention

MOSCOW, August 18. /TASS/. The attack on a traffic police station in Balashikha, to the east of Moscow, on Wednesday was carried out by two natives of Russia’s North Caucasus republic of Chechnya, Kommersant business daily writes citing sources.

The Interior Ministry said earlier two natives of Central Asian republics attacked the station at around 2.30 p.m. on Wednesday. They seized a gun owned by a police officer, wounding him with an axe and later opened fire at policemen inside the station. One attacker was shot dead on the scene and the other was killed when he offered resistance during his detention. Two police officers were hospitalized in a serious condition.

"After inspecting the incident scene a team of investigators found two rucksacks in the forest, some 20 meters from the traffic police station, that contained personal stuff (shorts, headphones and lighters) and the passports of those killed," the paper writes.

The attackers were Usman Murdalov, 21, and Sulim Israilov, 18, the residents of Chechnya’s Achkhoy-Martanovsky district. "The fact that they had left their stuff in the forest and went to the road with axes changed the main version," according to the report. Investigators believe the young men had planned to attack the police officers in order to seize their weapons.

The Federal Security Service (FSB) is now investigating if the attackers could have been linked to the participants of illegal armed groups, Kommersant writes.