More than 15 police officers and priests have died in a shootout in Russian Dagestan. Twelve are wounded. Two of the attackers were shot dead.

Several men opened fire at a synagogue, an Orthodox church and a police station in the Russian region of Dagestan, Russia’s North Caucasus, killing more than 15 police officers and several civilians, including a priest. According to Reuters, 12 people were injured in the attacks.

Victims

One of the policemen was killed during shelling of a synagogue in Derbent, where the Jewish community is located. After the attack, the synagogue burned down.

Another shootout took place at a police station in Makhachkala, about 125 kilometers north of the Caspian Sea coast, where another police officer was killed.

Orthodox priest Nikolai Kotelnikov, who worked in Derbent for more than 40 years, was “brutally killed”

Attackers

Russian state media reported that the attackers included two sons of the head of the Sergokalinsky district in central Dagestan, who were detained by investigators.

According to the regional department, two attackers were shot dead.

Grief

Three days of mourning have been declared in the Russian city in connection with the incident. “This is a day of tragedy for Dagestan and the entire country,” said the region’s governor, Sergei Melikov.

There have been no complaints about the terrorist attack yet, but the mayor says that it is known “who is behind the organization of the terrorist attacks and what their purpose is.”

Completion of the anti-terrorist operation

Russia’s Anti-Terrorism Committee (NAC) said it had completed an operation to stop armed attacks that killed more than 15 people in the Dagestan region.

“In order to neutralize threats to the life and health of citizens, a decision was made to stop the anti-terrorist operation” in Dagestan from 06:15 (Lisbon time), NAC reports, citing Russian news agencies.