Police storms gunmen attacking Chechnya’s parliament

The police have already stormed the parliament and neutralized all the rebels attacking the Chechnyan parliament, reportes Interfax.

Citing another source it also says that there might still be one gunman in the premises of the parliament.

The shooting in Chechnya's parliament building broke out this morning, with reports saying that several people had been killed and injured.

According to Interfax, which cited its own sources in Chechnya's law enforcement agencies, the shooting took place in the building's cabinet room.

According The Guardian the attack appears to be the work of Chechen militants who have been fighting against Chechnya's pro-Moscow leadership.

One report suggested that a small group of rebels had stormed the building. Another said that a suicide bomber had blown himself up near the parliament, with other rebels involved in a shootout with security forces.

According to interior ministry sources, the gunmen took hostages inside the parliament building. Other reports, though, indicated that the rebels had made their way into a government complex close to the parliament and had taken control of the agriculture ministry. At least three security staff are believed to have been killed in the shootout and one injured.

The insurgency by Islamist rebels has got worse over the past three years, with shootouts and bomb attacks between militants and security forces taking place on a daily basis. The rebels are fighting to establish an Afghanistan-style Islamic emirate across Russia's northern Caucasus.

In recent months rebels have staged several spectacular attacks. In March, two female suicide bombers from Dagestan attacked the Moscow metro, killing 40 people. In August, a group of rebels stormed the village of Chechen's Kremlin-appointed president, Ramzan Kadyrov, seizing control of several buildings.

Kadyrov was today said to have taken charge of a special operation to flush out the militants. Reports said that several deputies in the parliament were still inside, with the building surrounded. Russia's interior minister, Rashid Nurgaliyev, who is in Chechnya's capital, Grozny, had been informed of the attack.

The speaker of the Chechen parliament, Dukuvakhna Abdurakhamanov, was said to have survived the fighting and was still inside the building.