Shooter
© Konstantin Chalabov / Sputnik
Four people have been killed and several others injured in a gun attack on a crowd of churchgoers in Dagestan in southern Russia, local police confirmed. The shooter was killed by security forces.

The shooting happened in the city of Kizlyar, a provincial capital in the Republic of Dagestan. The gunman opened fire with a hunting rifle at a group of people leaving a church ceremony dedicated to the end of the Russian folk festival of Maslenitsa, which marks the start of Lent for Russian Orthodox Christians.

An eyewitness to the shooting, Oksana, told RT it happened right in front of a Christian church. The gunman targeted people as they were leaving, but luckily many of the churchgoers managed to take cover inside the building, giving more time for the security guards to respond to the attack.


"There were a lot of people there, moms with little children, elderly people. I believe God saved us, not allowing the man to get inside the church," the woman said. She added the gunman was killed as he was attempting to flee the scene.

The four fatalities were all civilian women leaving the church, according to law enforcement. Interfax also cites a source as saying that the gunman had a female accomplice who fled before the shooting started.


Two of the people injured were security personnel, who responded to the shooting and killed the attacker, according to police. There is inconsistency in the reports on the number of people wounded. The interior ministry puts the number at three, while the local health ministry says that five injured people were admitted to a hospital.

The Russian Investigative Committee says the gunman has been identified as a local resident in his early 20s.