MOSCOW - A female suicide bomber killed six people in Russia's restive North Caucasus republic of Dagestan on Tuesday, the regional Investigative Committee said.

The bomb attack in the village of Chirkey killed a religious scholar and his five followers, a spokesman of the local Investigation Committee told reporters.

A spokesperson of the Dagestan Interior Ministry confirmed the death toll and identified the scholar as Sheikh Said Afandi.

Investigators reached the site and began to probe the explosion, law enforcement authorities said.