Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
Mass shooting in Russia’s Dagestan region, 6 police officers killed, 12 injured
Terror in Russia after gunmen open fire at two synagogues leaving six police officers dead before attacking an Orthodox Church and slitting the throat of a priest
Two synagogues and an Orthodox church across southern Russia have today been attacked by militant gunmen, who killed six police officers and slit the throat of a priest.
The attackers fired at the religious sites, as well as a police station, across the tinderbox region of Dagestan, a largely Muslim region of Russia that borders Georgia and Azerbaijan. Authorities have said that at least 12 people were injured during the attacks.
A synagogue in regional capital Makhachkala was set alight, with smoke seen pouring from the building, while another was set on fire in Derbent, the southernmost city in Russia which lies roughly 80 miles south of Makhachkala.
The attackers, who have still not been identified, attacked the Kele-Numaz synagogue, the only Jewish place of worship in Derbent, which was also where militants attacked a priest and a guard who both worked at an Orthodox church in the city.
The priest, named locally as 66-year-old Father Nikolai Kotelnikov who served more than 40 years in Derbent, reportedly had this throat slit by the gunmen.
Watch: