A gunman killed five women and injured five others, including a police officer and a national guardsman, at a church in the Russian province of Dagestan, the TASS news agency reported. The gunman, who was carrying a hunting rifle, bullets and a knife, was killed.
“The shooter has been identified,” an unidentified spokesperson for the Russian Investigative Committee’s directorate for Dagestan said. “He is a local resident of 22 years of age.”
The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack that occurred in the province’s Kizlyar town, BBC reported. The terrorist group published a statement through its information centre, Amaq.
“We had finished the mass and were beginning to leave the church,” Russian news organisation RBK Daily quoted a priest as saying. “A bearded man ran towards the church shouting Allahu Akbar and killed four people.”
Dagestan, which borders Chechnya, is one of the poorest regions in Russia. Islamist rebels from Dagestan have travelled to Syria to fight for the Islamic State.
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