Russia: Two die in cathedral shooting

A gunman opened fire inside a Russian Orthodox cathedral on the eastern Russian island of Sakhalin yesterday, (Sunday 9 February) killing a nun and a parishioner, the BBC and other news services report. Six other people were less seriously wounded in the attack at the Cathedral of the Resurrection of Christ, in the city of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk.

No motive for the shooting has been determined yet. Federal investigators said a 25 year-old man who worked for a private security firm is being questioned by psychiatrists in connection with the killing to ascertain his mental state.

The regional leader of the Russian Orthodox Church, Archbishop Tikhon, held a prayer service for victims of the attack at the cathedral last night.

Sakhalin Island is just north of Japan. A BBC reoort states that "there was no apparent link to the Winter Olympics taking place in Sochi about 7,500km (4,700 miles) to the west."