MAKHACHKALA, August 14. /TASS/. Security forces have eliminated a gunman during a shootout in the village of Orota in Russia's North Caucasus Republic of Dagestan where a counterterrorism operation regime was put in place on Sunday evening, a source in Dagestan’s law enforcement agencies informed TASS.

"A gunman was killed in a shootout. His identification is in progress. Police officers are investigating the scene," the source said.

The press service of the National Anti-Terrorism Committee’s operation headquarters in Dagestan earlier told TASS that a counterterrorism operation regime had been put in place in the village of Orota at 18:30 Moscow Time on Sunday.

During the ongoing investigative activities conducted by the Russian Federal Security Service’s department in Dagestan and the republican Interior Ministry to establish the location of armed group members it was found out that members of the extremist illegal groups involved in subversive and terrorist activities were hiding in the village of Orota, the headquarters' representative said.

Meanwhile, a source in Dagestan’s law enforcement agencies informed TASS that police officers are searching for leader of the so-called Khunzakh armed group Khadjimurad Gajiyev in the village. He noted that law enforcers were searching for Gajiyev in the village in early August, but the counterterrorism operation regime was not introduced at that time. A house in the village was blocked, but there was no one in it, the source said. He added that police officers did not rule out that Gajiyev had not left the village since then and was just hiding somewhere.