Six police officers were killed and twelve others injured in two attacks on Sunday in Makhachkala and Derbent, two towns located in the Russian republic of Dagestan, in the Caucasus, local authorities announced.
« Six law enforcement officers were killed and 12 injured » during armed attacks on two Orthodox churches, a synagogue and a police station in Derbent and Makhachkala, announced Gayana Garieva, head of the press service of the Ministry of the Interior of Dagestan.
A preliminary report from the ministry reported that a police officer was killed and six others injured during an armed attack against a road police station in Makhachkala.
In Derbent, the capital of the Republic of Dagestan located 125 km from Makhachkala, initial estimates spoke of a police officer killed and another injured when unknown assailants opened fire on places of worship in the city.
« Around 6 p.m. (Moscow time) in Derbent, unknown persons fired from automatic weapons at a synagogue and a church. According to provisional data, one police officer was killed and another injured“, announced the department in a press release.
The attackers fled in a white car, said the same source, noting that the circumstances of the attack are being clarified.
Russian media, citing the National Anti-Terrorism Committee, later announced the deaths of an Orthodox priest in Derbent and a church security guard in Makhachkala in the attacks, adding that two attackers were neutralized at Makhachkala.
Following these incidents, the head of the Dagestan Republic, Sergei Melikov, announced the creation of a crisis unit. He was also outraged, via Telegram, at the attacks against the police, seeing them as an attempt to destabilize society.
« Tonight in Derbent and Makhachkala, unknown persons tried to destabilize the social order“, he wrote, adding that “ these non-humans relied primarily on panic and fear. They won’t get this from the Dagestanis« .
Following these two incidents, the Russian Investigative Committee opened an investigation into a terrorist attack. An anti-terrorist operation regime was also introduced.
At the end of April, two police officers were killed and four members of the security forces injured following an attack on a traffic police patrol in Karachayevo-Cherkessia, a Russian republic also located in the Caucasus.
With MAP
