A deputy interior minister in Russia's southern republic of Dagestan has been killed after their car was sprayed with bullets in the capital Makhachkala. Magomed Omarov died in hospital, according to state-controlled television channel Pervy Kanal on Wednesday. Dagestan's deputy prosecutor Arsen Bulatov added that two of his bodyguards were also dead and that a third was seriously injured and was in hospital. Omarov and his bodyguards were caught in automatic weapons fire as they were driving into Makhachkala, Bulatov said, adding that the Dagestani prosecutor's office has launched a criminal investigation. The minister was the target of an assassination attempt in May 2003 when his car was blown up by a remote controlled mine in downtown Makhachkala. But both he and his drivers sustained only light injuries.