MosNews - 08.13.2006

Home-Made Bomb Thrown into Synagogue in Russian Khabarovsk


(MosNews) - Non-identified individuals threw an incendiary bottle into the premises of a synagogue in the center of Khabarovsk in Russian Far East early on Sunday. No one was hurt.

“The bottle struck against the stairs, burst into flame, but went out on the ground moist after the rain,” Galina Orlova, spokesperson for the Khabarovsk territorial interior department, told Interfax on Sunday.

The incident was reported by a security guard. No one was hurt in the attack. The building was not damaged, she said.

Police have launched an operation to track down the assailants, while the prosecutor’s office is expected to launch a probe into the incident on charges of hooliganism.

It was the second attack of this kind on the synagogue this summer. Anti-Jewish slogans were inscribed on a concrete wall in front of the synagogue in late May. The inscription was painted over, but no criminal action was started.

In January, a young man, Alexander Koptsev, broke into a synagogue in central Moscow during evening prayers wielding a knife. Shouting “I will kill Jews!” he attacked worshippers, slashing and stabbing at least 9 people before the son of a rabbi wrestled him to the ground.