Moscow - Suspected Muslim rebels killed 11 people on Thursday in an attack on a police post in the Russian region of Dagestan, local officials said.

The masked gunmen sprayed bullets at the building, killing both policemen and several civilians who were working nearby, Dagestan's Interior Ministry said in the capital, Makhachkala.

The attackers later fled, according to the Russian news agency Interfax.

There has been a spate of violence recently in Dagestan and other regions of the predominantly Muslim north Caucasus such as Chechnya and Ingushetia Islamic extremists are fighting to end Russian dominance.(dpa)