7 killed in attack on Russian synagogue, churches

Gunmen on Sunday attacked a synagogue and churches, killing a priest and six police officers in Russia’s Caucasus region of Dagestan, the national counter-terrorism agency and police said.

The attacks took place in Dagestan’s largest city of Makhachkala and in the coastal city of Derbent.

Russia’s Investigative Committee said it had opened criminal probes over “acts of terror”.

Dagestan is a largely Muslim region of Russia bordering Georgia and Azerbaijan.

“This evening in the cities of Derbent and Makhachkala armed attacks were carried out on two Orthodox churches, a synagogue and a police check-point,” said the National Antiterrorism Committee in a statement to RIA Novosti news agency.

“As a result of the terrorist attacks, according to preliminary information, a priest from the Russian Orthodox Church and police officers were killed.”

In all, six police officers had been killed and another 12 wounded in the attacks, the spokeswoman for Dagestan’s interior ministry, Gayana Gariyeva, told RIA Novosti.