MOSCOW (AFP) -- Two people were killed in an attack on a car in Russia's turbulent Ingushetia region Friday, officials said, denying initial reports that a regional minister was among the dead.

Unidentified assailants opened fire at a Kia car in the village of Sredniye Achaluki in Ingushetia, the investigation committee of the Russian prosecutor general's office said in a statement.
“As a result, two people, who had been in the car, were taken to hospital where they subsequently died,” the statement said. Efforts were under way to identify the victims and the details of the crime, it added.
Earlier, security sources said Ruslan Balayev, the sports and tourism minister for Ingushetia, had died on the spot when his car was attacked in the early morning.
But an official identifying himself as Balayev denied the reports when contacted by telephone.
“The minister has been at work since 08:00 A.M.,” he said.
“I don't even know” what's happening, he said, referring to the reports of his death. Asked if he was alive and well, he said: “As you see.”
The investigation committee statement confirmed that the authorities had managed to establish that Balayev had not been in the car that came under attack.
Balayev told AFP that the confusion stemmed from the fact that “it was probably a ministry registered car.”
The incident follows a string of brazen attacks on officials, including an assassination bid last month that critically wounded the leader of Ingushetia, Yunus-Bek Yevkurov.
On Wednesday, the body of a leading rights activist Natalya Estemirova was found in Ingushetia after she was abducted in neighboring Chechnya.