Originally published on February 10, 2014

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The main Russian Orthodox church on the far-east island of Sakhalin was the site of fatal shootings on Sunday (February 9) after a gunman killed two people at a Russian Orthodox cathedral during services on Sunday.

Witnesses said a man in his 20s entered the cathedral at around 7 a.m. on Sunday as services were underway and for unknown reasons, the man began firing a weapon in the Cathedral of the Resurrection in the city of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, which is the largest city on the isolated far-eastern Russian island of Sakhalin.

Reuters reports that both a Russian Orthodox nun and a worshiper were both fatally shot.

In addition to the two deaths, six others were also shot, and are being treated for non-life threatening wounds to the legs. Police immediately detained the suspect, who will undergo a psychiatric evaluation. One church official told a Russian news service that the suspect is very possibly mentally incompetent and an investigative committee will try to determine if that is the case.

Russian authorities say there is no apparent connection between the shooting and the ongoing Winter Olympics taking place in Western Russia's Sochi City.

Reuters also reported that the regional leader of the Russian Orthodox Church, Archbishop Tikhon, has scheduled a special prayer service for victims and that the cathedral would hold a ceremony to cleanse it from the violence. Shootings in public buildings in Russia are extremely rare, but on February 3, a teenager used his father's rifle to shoot dead two adults before being arrested.

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