(RIA Novosti) - Seven Russian police officers have been killed and one wounded in an attack by unidentified gunmen on the officers' minivan in Chechnya in Russia's North Caucasus, a top regional commander said Wednesday. "A special operation is under way," the commander of Russia's Joint Forces in the North Caucasus, Colonel-General Yevgeny Baryayev, said without giving details. Chechnya's Prosecutor General Valery Kuznetsov said the gunmen blew up the officers' UAZ minivan before opening fire. The incident took place Tuesday near the village of Dair in the Shatoi district, about 30 miles south of Chechnya's capital, Grozny. The officers were part of an Interior Ministry Special Operations unit on temporary duty in Chechnya, from Russia's Mordovia region. Earlier reports said two officers were killed and two were missing, as a search and rescue operation was complicated by nightfall.