Police take control of Russia's Dagestan airport after anti-Israeli protests

Russian police have taken over an airport in the predominantly Muslim Dagestan region and arrested 60 people after hundreds of anti-Israel protesters stormed the facility on Sunday when a plane from Israel arrived, the interior ministry said on Monday.

Videos obtained by Reuters from the airport at Makhachkala, the regional capital, showed the 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".

Another group was seen trying to topple over a patrol truck.

Twenty people were wounded at the airport before security forces contained the unrest, local authorities said. The passengers on the plane were safe, security forces told the media.

The unrest followed several other anti-Israel incidents in recent days in Russia's North Caucasus region in response to Israel's war against Palestinian group Hamas in Gaza.

The local Dagestani government said earlier that it was strengthening security measures across the republic, which is home to about 3 million people.

The Russian Aviation Authority has closed the airport for flights until it completes security checks.

People in the crowd walk shouting antisemitic slogans at an airfield of the airport in Makhachkala, Russia, on Monday. AP

The interior ministry, in its statement, said the identity of 150 of what it called the most active protesters had been identified. It said the authorities were looking to track down everyone involved.

"At present, the airport is fully under the control of law enforcement agencies," the ministry said.

Sergei Melikov, the head of Dagestan, said the incident was a gross violation of the law, even as Dagestanis "empathise with the suffering of victims of the actions of unrighteous people and politicians, and pray for peace in Palestine".

"There is no courage in waiting as a mob for unarmed people who have not done anything forbidden," Melikov said on the Telegram messaging app.

Regional leaders in two other areas of the northern Caucasus called for calm. Dagestan’s chief Muslim cleric, or mufti issued a similar appeal.

Reuters