MOSCOW, May 17 (Xinhua) -- Seven people, including a senior official, were killed Wednesday in southern Russia as a suicide bomber drove his car into a police convoy, Russian news agencies reported.

    Dzhabrail Kostoyev, deputy head of the Ingushetia interior ministry, was among the dead, the reports said.

    "A bomb blew up at about 8 a.m. (1200 GMT), when Kostoyev was driving to his office, escorted by other cars. Kostoyev was killed on the spot" in the Ingushetia region, which borders Chechnya, the Interfax news agency said, citing the ministry's press service.

    Kostoyev's driver and bodyguard, who were in the car with Kostoyev, were also killed in the bombing. The bombing left four other civilians dead, all of them in a car that crashed into Kostoyev's vehicle after the bomb went off.

    Last year, there were attempts on the life of Kostoyev, who headed the Nazran police department at that time, the Itar-Tass news agency said. The department building was fired upon from a mortar in February. One mortar shell hit Kostoyev's office, but nobody was in the room then.

    In August, Kostoyev was seriously injured when an explosive device detonated when his car drove by. Enditem