The deputy mayor of a town in Russia's troubled North Caucasus republic of Daghestan was seriously wounded in an apparent assassination attempt today. 

Officials say Vasily Naumochkin, the deputy mayor of Kizlyar, came under fire as he was heading to work. 

In a separate incident, two people were killed when an explosive device went off in their car. 

Russian media report that the explosive device appeared to have been a suicide belt. 

On August 21, Russian security forces in Daghestan killed a man suspected of being the mastermind of the March twin suicide bombings in Moscow's subway, which killed 40 people.