A woman from Russia’s predominantly Muslim region of Dagestan was found murdered in Moscow, with symbols of the cross slashed on her body, police said Sunday.
The woman’s body was found on a staircase in an apartment building in the southwest of the city on Saturday night, a police source said. “The dead woman was slashed on her arms, knees and stomach, with cross-shaped figures,” the source said.
The Moscow police website confirmed the discovery of the woman’s body and said a murder inquiry had been launched.
The killing follows weeks of heightened racial tension in the Russian capital, which saw some of the worst mass violence in years in October, after rioters went on the rampage following the fatal stabbing of a Russian man by a suspect the police said was from Azerbaijan.