Police received an emergency call at 06:38 p.m. on Sunday, when a blast went off in the St. Nicholas church on Medynskaya Street. Two church officials, a woman and a man, were injured while removing a suspicious-looking bag left at the entrance by unknown people, who were described to police by eyewitnesses.
"Experts have compiled photofits of two suspects in the explosion in the St. Nicholas church on Medynskaya Street. They are young people aged 16-20, of medium height with short hair," Natalia Maltseva said.
Investigators believe the attack was a random act of hooliganism without a real motive, Maltseva said.
Commenting on the attack, spokesmen for the Russian Orthodox Church told RIA Novosti clerics need extra protection.
"A priest cannot defend himself, and cannot register or own a firearm, so society itself should protect its priests," said Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin, deputy chairman of the Department for External Church Relation of the Moscow Patriarchate.
