Mob Storms Dagestan Airport in Search of Jews

 Category: World News

 

Israel has urged Russia to protect “all its citizens and all Jews” after a large mob shouting antisemitic slogans stormed a Dagestan airport.

Video footage on social media showed an angry crowd running through the airport in Makhachkala seeking people arriving on a flight from Tel Aviv.

Some of the crowd ran onto the runway and surrounded aircraft there.

Russia’s aviation agency Rosaviatsia said security forces later brought the situation under control.

The authorities closed the airport and it will stay closed until Tuesday, Rosaviatsia says.

Sixty alleged mob participants have been arrested, Russian news agencies say, citing the local interior ministry.

Video clips showed hundreds of people storming the airport terminal, with some waving Palestinian flags.

Many in the crowd shouted antisemitic slogans while others chanted “Allahu Akbar” – God is greatest.

Video posted on social media showed a mob rampaging through the terminal, asking staff where the “Jews” were.

One passenger, who said he was on the flight from Tel Aviv, told local media that he was stopped by the crowd. He said he was let go after rioters told him: “We are not touching non-Jews today.”

A local Telegram channel encouraged people to gather at the airport at the time of the flight’s arrival and encouraged participants to search for every Jewish person there.

Local media reported that some demonstrators were stopping cars outside Makhachkala’s airport demanding to see documents.

Twenty people were injured, including some police officers, the republic’s health ministry said. Some have serious injuries and two are in critical condition.

Dagestan is a mainly Muslim Russian republic in the North Caucasus, home to some 3.1 million people on the western edge of the Caspian Sea. Its government said a criminal case had been opened for civil disorder.