MOSCOW, January 11 (RIA Novosti) - An attacker stabbed ten people with a hunting knife in a synagogue in central Moscow Wednesday, the Moscow Prosecutor's Office said.
The shaven-headed attacker, 20-year old Muscovite Alexander Koptsev, rushed into the synagogue shouting, "I came to kill you," witnesses said.
Four people, including the synagogue's Rabbi, were left in a serious condition, the NTV television channel said.
The Rabbi was taken to hospital and was undergoing surgery, Borukh Gorin, a spokesman for the Federation of Russia's Jewish Communities, said.
Three foreigners, an American, an Israeli and a Tajik citizen, were also among the injured, according to the Prosecutor's Office.
Russian reports speculated that the attacker could be a member of an extremist group, and Gorin condemned the attacker as a Nazi. "It [Nazism] should be eradicated," Gorin said.
The Federation's press service said Russia's Chief Rabbi, currently on a private visit to Israel, would return to Moscow following the attack.
The Russian Orthodox Church also condemned the attack. "The law enforcement agencies, the authorities and the public should make every effort to prevent such attacks," a spokesman for the Moscow Patriarchy said.
