Authorities deny reports of Russian minister's assassination

South Russian authorities have refuted media reports that said an Ingushetian minister and his driver were shot dead early on Friday.

The minister of sports and tourism, Ruslan Balayev, is alive and well, and suffered no assassination attempt, press secretary Zhanna Almazova told Interfax.

Citing a regional spokesman for the FSB, news agencies said Friday that Balayev was shot dead that morning when his car was attacked.

"There was a shooting," the spokesman Damir Rosin was quoted by AFP as saying. The regional minister Ruslan Balayev died on the spot in the early morning, he said. His driver also died, Rosin added.

But Almazova rejected the reports.

“The minister is alive and well. It was his deputy Akhmed Chakkhiyev who was attacked,” she said.

Law-enforcement agencies confirmed that a car was attacked and two people inside it killed early on Friday, and added that the police were trying to identify the two victims.

Attacks on authorities, including police and security forces have become almost a daily occurrence in Russia's volatile Northern Caucasus and regions like Ingushetia and Dagestan are of particular concern.