'I will kill Jews'
2006-01-12 08:15
Moscow - A knife-wielding man shouting "I will kill Jews" attacked a synagogue in downtown Moscow on Wednesday, slashing and stabbing at least eight people before the son of a rabbi wrestled him to the ground, officials and eyewitnesses said.
The attack at the Chabad Bronnaya synagogue came amid an increase in the activity of hate groups in Russia and in the number of racist crimes. Jewish leaders said the attack should serve as a clear message to Russian authorities and the public to fight racism.
"If today's act does not sound an alarm, society faces grave danger," said Borukh Gorin, chief spokesperson for the Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia. "Fascism will come knocking at the door of every citizen if we do not take serious measures now."
Among the eight men wounded were an American and an Israeli citizen, along with a man from the Central Asian nation of Tajikistan, chief Moscow prosecutor Anatoly Zuyev told reporters outside the synagogue. He said the attacker "shouted words that showed he was motivated by ethnic and religious hatred."
Growing racial unrest
Zuyev said the suspect, a Muscovite identified as Alexander Koptsev, born in 1985, was in custody and faced charges included hate-based attempted murder. It was not immediately clear whether he was a member of any anti-Semitic or neo-Nazi groups, he said.
Gorin said the attacker had a shaved head and wore a leather jacket. Another spokesperson for the same organisation, Timur Kireyev, said he shouted "I will kill people, I will kill Jews" after bursting into the synagogue complex at about 17:30, when there were several dozen people in the building.
"This was not a game, he was out to kill," said Iosif Ostrovsky, a rabbinical student who said he saw the assailant stab several people - aiming at their necks, heads or upper bodies - in what he called a "well-planned attack." He said the man also shouted "Heil Hitler!"
A kitchen worker who gave her name only as Svetlana said the man assaulted people in downstairs kitchen area after entering the building. "I saw people lying on the floor, cut and bloodied," she said, adding that the man had pulled the knife from a sheath hung around his neck.
Jewish leaders and witnesses and said the assailant attacked a guard who tried to stop him, then stabbed people in or near a prayer room on the first floor before continuing his rampage upstairs. They said a son of the synagogue's rabbi, Yitzhak Kogan, wrestled the attacker to the ground and held him until police arrived.
"I grabbed him by the neck and put him on the floor," said 18-year-old Iosif Kogan, his checked shirt flecked with dried blood as he spoke to reporters crowded outside.
Among those wounded was the synagogue rabbi's son-in-law, a rabbi himself who was undergoing surgery.
The stabbing is the latest in a growing series of incidents apparently involving skinheads or racist groups in Russia.
- AP