Second Georgian policeman killed in Abkhazia

TBILISI (Reuters) - A Georgian policeman was shot and killed on Saturday near rebel Abkhazia, the second such incident this week involving Georgia's Russian-backed breakaway regions, the Georgian interior ministry said.

The policeman was hit when shots were fired from an Abkhaz village at a Georgian police checkpoint in Ganmukhuri, near the de facto border with Abkhazia, ministry spokesman Shota Utiashvili said.

"He had very serious wounds and died on the way to hospital," he said.

The incident prompted the interior minister to send elite troops to the area.

"After the killing of a Georgian policeman in western Georgia today, the interior minister made a decision to replace policemen there with special forces. They will be deployed at the de facto border with Abkhazia," Utiashvili said.

The self-styled government of Abkhazia -- which Russia recognised as an independent state together with South Ossetia after a brief war with Georgia last month -- denied any involvement, the Russian news agency Interfax reported.

"The Abkhaz side has nothing to do with this. This is most likely the result of internal Georgian wrangling," Ruslan Kishmariya, deputy to the regional president, told Interfax.

Earlier this week Georgia accused Russia of violating a ceasefire deal after a Georgian policeman was shot dead near a Russian checkpoint near South Ossetia.

Russia and separatist authorities in South Ossetia denied any involvement in that killing.

(Reporting by Matt Robinson and Margarita Antidze; Writing by Simon Shuster; Editing by Richard Balmforth)