(5 Dec 2014)
Building on fire after gun battle, at least three police officers killed
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AP TELEVISION
Grozny - 4 Dec 2014
1. Various of multi-storey building on fire
Aftermath of attack by militants that killed 20 people in the Chechen capital
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AP TELEVISION
Grozny - 5 Dec 2014
2. Various exteriors of damaged school
3. Armed military man in front of school
4. Women outside school
5. Military man sitting at window inside school
STORYLINE:
On December 4th 2014 a publishing house in the capital of Russia's North Caucasus republic of Chechnya was in flames, after a gun battle broke out earlier in the morning.
Security officials and the leader of Chechnya said gunmen travelling in several cars killed at least three traffic police officers at a checkpoint late at night in Grozny.
State news agency RIA-Novosti cited an unnamed law enforcement source as stating that five police officers were killed.
The Moscow-based National Anti-Terrorist Committee said in a statement that after the attack on the traffic police, gunmen occupied the publishing house in central Grozny, and security services, police and emergency services personnel surrounded the building.
An Associated Press reporter saw the building in flames and heard the sound of heavy-calibre gunfire before dawn, several hours after the unrest erupted.
It was unknown how the blaze started.
The AP reporter also saw a body in civilian clothing in the street near the publishing house but it was not clear how and when the person had been killed, and fighting was ongoing.
Although unrest is common across Russia's North Caucasus, forceful security measures adopted by iron-fisted Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov have spared Grozny of significant violence for several years.
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Residents in the Chechen capital of Grozny removed rubble from several damaged buildings on December 5th, following an attack by militants that killed at least 20 people.
The battle left the ten-story Press House, which housed local media offices, gutted by a blazing fire that also spread to a nearby street market.
Police waged hours-long gun-battles with Islamic militants on December 4th.
The new violence raised fears of more attacks in Chechnya and widening unrest in the rest of Russia's volatile North Caucasus region.
The insurgents in Chechnya and other Caucasus regions want to create an independent state governed by their strict interpretation of Islamic law.
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