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Sakhalin church shooter charged

Charges have been brought against the local resident, who opened fire at the main Orthodox cathedral of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk

© ITAR-TASS/Sergei Krasnoukhov

YUZHNO-SAKHALINSK, February 10. /ITAR-TASS/. Charges have been brought against the local resident, who opened fire at the main Orthodox cathedral of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, on Sakhalin Island off Russia’s eastern coast, on Sunday, killing a nun and a churchgoer and wounding six other people, a source from the press service of the regional investigative department told Tass on Monday.

Natalia Makhonina said the gunman was facing charges under article 105 of the Russian Criminal Code (murder of two or more people). She said on Tuesday, investigators would appeal to the court for his arrest.

On Sunday, a 25-year-old local resident employed as a security guard in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, opened fire in the Cathedral of the Resurrection of Christ in the administrative centre of Sakhalin. A nun and a churchgoer died instantaneously. The attacker was detained at the scene.

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