Estimated read time: Less than a minute
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
MAKHACHKALA, Russia (AP) — Fire has engulfed the main mosque in a town in the southern Russian republic of Dagestan.
Police spokeswoman Fatina Ubaidatova says no one was hurt when the fire swept through the mosque in Kizlyar, located near the border with Chechnya.
Fire investigators were still trying to determine the cause of Friday's blaze, which broke out after morning prayers.
There were no indications that the fire was connected to the Islamic insurgency that spread through Russia's predominantly Muslim North Caucasus region after two separatist wars in Chechnya.
A number of moderate Muslim clerics who oppose a more fundamentalist form of Islam have been attacked or killed in Dagestan in recent years.
Copyright © The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
