MAKHACHKALA, Russia – Russian police say one person was killed and four were seriously injured in a mass brawl involving up to 1,500 people in a restive southern province next to Chechnya.
Dagestan police spokesman Mark Tolchinsky says today that violence broke out between residents of two villages in the region in a dispute over the result of a wrestling contest on Saturday.
Tolchinsky says rioters were armed with guns and knives, and one policeman was badly wounded while intervening to break up the dispute.
Several dozen people have been detained.
Life in the Caspian Sea province of Dagestan has been marred in recent years by violence fuelled by internal disputes and crime.
