Seven policemen died in the volatile Russian Caucasus region of Ingushetia early Sunday after a bomb went off at the funeral of their colleague.

Seven people were killed and eleven wounded by a suicide bombing in the Russian Republic of Ingushetia, according to reports by the country’s main law enforcement agency.

According to the latest casualty figures, both police and civilians were injured in the blast, Russia Today website reported.

The bombing targeted mourners at a funeral for a police officer killed in a shootout on Saturday.

The force of the explosive device was reportedly equivalent to three kilograms of TNT, and was packed with shrapnel to increase the likelihood of casualties.

“According to preliminary results, it was a suicide bomber who blew himself up at the mourning ceremony,” RIA Novosti quoted the secretary of the Region’s Security Council as saying.

“A head of a man whom nobody was able to identify was found several meters from the site of the bombing,” Interfax news agency reported, quoting a source in the Republic’s police agency. “It may suggest the attack was carried out by a suicide bomber."

RIA Novosti previously reported that five people were killed by what was believed to be a bomb blast that detonated underneath a police vehicle.

Ingushetian President Yunus-Bek Evkurov claimed the attack was deliberately planned to take place during the major Muslim holiday Uraza Bayram, known internationally as Eid al-Fitr.

“According to the obtained information, the attack on the policeman who died in the hospital from his injuries was specifically planned to be carried out the funeral bombing,” Interfax quoted Evkurov as saying.

The explosion came hours after masked gunmen opened fire in a mosque in Dagestan on Saturday evening as worshippers celebrated the end of holy Ramadan, wounding eight and leaving an explosive device that was later deactivated.

Also on Saturday, unknown attackers in a car opened fire on a police officer, and then fled.

The officer was taken to a hospital and later died from his wounds. A 14-year-old girl was also wounded in the shooting, and is currently in post-surgery recovery.

Russia is fighting a simmering extremist insurgency in the Caucasus, mostly in Dagestan and Ingushetia, which see regular attacks that officials blame on militants seeking to establish an independent state across the Russian Caucasus.