Three days of mourning declared after 15 people reportedly killed during multiple assaults in restive province
Five people responsible for multiple gun attacks targeting churches and synagogues in Russia’s Dagestan region have been “eliminated”, said the authorities as the region began three days of mourning.
A criminal investigation has been launched under anti-terrorism laws after gunmen killed 19 people in co-ordinated attacks in two cities in the restive region in the North Caucasus.
Russia’s Investigative Committee said 15 law enforcement officers and four civilians, including a Russian Orthodox priest, were killed during attacks on religious buildings in the cities of Derbent and Makhachkala on Sunday evening. Two Orthodox churches, two synagogues and a police checkpoint were attacked.
Reuters reported that gunmen with automatic weapons burst into an Orthodox church and a synagogue in the ancient city of Derbent, setting fire to an icon at the church and killing a 66-year-old Orthodox priest, Nikolai Kotelnikov.
The Russian Orthodox church said Kotelnikov had been “brutally killed” in the attack.
The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, offered his “deepest condolences” to those who had lost loved ones in Dagestan and Crimea, the Kremlin said on Monday.
