An Abkhaz militiaman was killed and a Georgian policeman injured in a clash, Georgian and Abkhaz officials said.

The Abkhaz and Georgian sides, however, have provided conflicting versions of the incident, which occurred late on October 17.

The Georgian Interior Ministry said that the clash occurred when a group of Abkhaz and Georgian criminals tried to smuggle a car, stolen from Tbilisi, into breakaway Abkhazia. One Georgian criminal suspect was captured, one Abkhaz criminal suspect was killed and another one escaped, according to this report.

“The Abkhaz criminals opened fire and one of them was, of course, liquidated,” Vano Merabishvili, the Georgian interior minister, told reporters in Zugdidi, where the wounded Georgian policeman was hospitalized.

Meanwhile, the Abkhaz side has claimed that “a squad of Georgian saboteurs” attacked an Abkhaz border guard checkpoint near the village of Tagiloni. One Abkhaz border guard officer, Manuchar Arshba, according to this report, was injured and captured, and subsequently died in hospital in Zugdidi.

“It was an attack similar to the one which took place on September 20,” Ruslan Kishmaria, the Abkhaz leader’s envoy in the predominately Georgian-populated Gali district, said. “Georgia’s attempts to ‘de-freeze’ the conflict may lead to dangerous consequences.”