Gunmen have opened fire on a crowd of Chechen villagers as they collected their benefit payments, killing four and wounding at least eight others.
The four masked men attacked as about 50 people picked up unemployment allowances in Starye Atagi, 12 miles south of the Chechen capital of Grozny.
Although the Kremlin claims Chechnya is stabilising, fighting persists in the republic, with deadly clashes and Russian air and artillery assaults reported almost daily.
Chechen administration officials are often a favourite target for the rebels, who view them as co-operating with Moscow.
Russian forces have been bogged down in Chechnya since 1999, where they returned after rebel raids on a neighbouring region and a series of bombings in Russian cities.
Russian troops had fought a 1994-96 war with Chechen separatists that ended in a Russian retreat and de facto independence for the region.
AP