SIX police officers have been killed and at least 12 people injured in a series of attacks across southern Russia.
A priest is also said to be among the deceased following the coordinated attacks in the North Caucasus region of Dagestan on Sunday, the region’s interior ministry said.
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The Interior Ministry has been quoted as saying a synagogue and an Orthodox church, both targets of the attacks, had been set ablaze in the city of Derbent.
The city is home to an ancient Jewish community in the South Caucasus and a UNESCO world heritage site.
Two of the gunmen have reportedly been shot dead.
“Unidentified people fired at a synagogue and a church with automatic weapons,” the interior ministry said.
“One police officer was killed and one injured.”
Russian news agency RIA reported that gunmen opened fire on the synagogue in Derbent around 6pm local time.
The synagogue was seen on fire shortly after the attack.
The gunmen are reported to have then fled in a car.
Around the same time, another police officer was killed in an exchange of shots at a police post in Makhachkala, about 75 miles to the north along the Caspian Sea coast.
Makhachkala is the main city in Dagestan and is considered a mainly Muslim region in southern Russia.
Fighting was later reported in the city’s streets, with footage circulating online of at least three armed men dressed in black running around before opening fire.
Other clips show people running for their lives as police chase terrorists on a local beach.
The identities of the perpetrators are not yet clear.
The six officers are understood to have been killed in separate shootings, both at the police post in Makhachkala and outside the synagogue in Derbent.
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