An officer of the patrol guard service of the traffic police department of the Kabardino-Balkaria republic has been killed in an incident with firing at the Kyzburun post in the Baksansky district on the Kavkaz federal highway, Tatyana Nauzhokova, senior aid to the head of the Kabardino-Balkaria investigation department of the Russian Prosecutor's Investigative Committee (SKP) told Itar-Tass on Monday. "Unidentified gunmen opened fire at the fixed post at 23:45, Moscow time, Sunday. The perpetrators disappeared," Nauzhokova said. At present the investigation and search measures are being taken to find out all the circumstances of the incident, she noted. Criminal proceedings have been instituted under the Russian Criminal Code articles "attempt on the life of law enforcers," and "illegal acquisition, keeping and carrying of firearms." The Kabardino-Balkar Republic (Kabardino-Balkaria) is located on the northern slopes of the Greater Caucasus, with its central part on the adjoining Kabarda Plain. The republic has an area of 12,500 square kilometres and extends 100 kilometres from north to south and 175 kilometres from west to east. Kabardino-Balkaria borders on Georgia in the south, Stavropol Territory in the north, the Karachai-Cherkessia Republic in the west, and the Republic of North Ossetia in the east and southeast. It is part of the North Caucasian economic district and is a centre of concentration of the economic and scientific potential of the North Caucasus region of Russia. The population is about 780,000 people (57.7 percent urban), and the population density is 63.2 people per square kilometer. The republic is divided into 9 districts that include 7 cities, 4 towns and 108 rural administrations.
