14 killed in Chechnya shootout

Seven police personnel and seven militants were killed Thursday during an anti-terrorist operation in Chechnya's capital Grozny.

"The operation to destroy the bandits is entering its final phase," Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov pasted a video on his Instagram page, claiming he was personally supervising the operation.

At the same time, another group of militants has been reportedly blocked in a school, and an operation was under way to resolve the situation, the Russia Today news channel reported.

Russia's National Anti-Terrorism Committee confirmed surrounding a group of militants in the Press House in Grozny and starting a counter-terrorist operation to neutralise them.

The committee announced that, after midnight, a group of armed men in three cars carried out an attack on a police post.

After that, the assailants hid inside the Press House building in the centre of Grozny.

Kadyrov has suggested that the militants might have come from outside the Chechnya.

The militants' motive was unclear but an unverified video posted on internet Wednesday said the attack was being carried out on the orders of Chechen rebel commander, Amir Khamzat, to punish security officers for harassing Muslim women.

In October, a suicide bomb attack in the Chechen capital killed five police officers and left at least 12 people injured.