The mayor of one of the biggest cities in Russia's turbulent North Caucasus region died from his wounds yesterday after gunmen attacked him in the street, prosecutors said.

Vitaly Karayev, mayor of Vladikavkaz, is the most senior official to be killed for several years in the North Caucasus, a mountainous area on Russia's southern border where insurgents, some linked to militant Islam, mount regular attacks.

"Today at about 9:00 am ... unknown individuals shot at the mayor of Vladikavkaz Vitaly Karayev," the investigative committee of the Russian Prosecutor-General's Office said in a statement.