Mob storms Russian airport 'looking for Jews'

Israel has urged Russia to protect "all its citizens and all Jews" after an angry mob stormed a Dagestan airport in search of passengers arriving from Tel Aviv.

Video footage obtained by Reuters shows hundreds of anti-Israeli protesters, mostly young men, "waving Palestinian flags, breaking down glass doors and running through the airport on Sunday evening shouting 'Allahu Akbar', or 'God is Greatest'". 

The riot erupted after reports on social media platform Telegram that a flight carrying "refugees from Israel" was due to land in Makhachkala, in Russia’s mostly Muslim southerly region of Dagestan, said The Guardian. Passengers "were forced to take refuge in planes or hide in the airport for fear of being attacked".

 Some of the mob "ran onto the runway" after "rampaging through the terminal", said the BBC, and "surrounded aircraft". 

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Local authorities closed the airport and said that 20 people, including nine police officers, had been injured, with two in a critical condition.

Russia's aviation agency, Rosaviatsia, said today that security forces have now brought the situation under control, but that the airport would remain closed until Tuesday.

The Interior Ministry said that 60 alleged rioters had been arrested and that 150 of the "most active protesters" had been identified. 

However, witnesses "said that the police initially watched on without intervening", according to The Telegraph. 

Anti-Israel protests "have been growing in Dagestan throughout the week", the paper reported, "with thousands joining angry demonstrations against Israeli strikes on Gaza". On Saturday, protesters besieged a hotel in the Dagestani city of Khasavyurt, "where they mistakenly believed that Jews were staying". 

Amid growing fears that "anger at Israel is straining order in the North Caucasus", leaders in Dagestan, one of Russian's "poorest regions", have appealed for calm.

"There is no courage in waiting as a mob for unarmed people who have not done anything forbidden," said Dagestan's governor, Sergei Melikov.