Isil claims responsibility after Russian knifeman stabs eight before being shot dead by police

Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant has claimed responsibility for a stabbing attack in Russia that has left two people in a serious condition.

The knife attacker stabbed eight people on the street in Russia’s far northern city of Surgut before being shot by police, investigators said Saturday.

Isil’s Amaq news agency claimed responsibility for the attack on Saturday.

The male attacker “carried out attacks on passers-by, causing stab wounds to eight” while “moving along central streets of the city” at around 11:20 am local time, said Russia’s Investigative Committee, which probes major crimes.

It said that armed police then arrived and used their weapons on the attacker and “liquidated” him.

“The version that the attack was a terrorist one is not the main one,” the interior ministry’s press service in the Khanty-Mansi region told the Interfax news agency, saying that the attacker had been identified and may have suffered from psychiatric disorders.