Five women have been killed after a gunman opened fire on people leaving a church service in Russia's Dagestan region.

Russian news agency Tass reported that the gunman was shot dead by police after killing four worshippers and wounding four others in an attack in the town of Kizlyar.

The gunman was armed with a hunting rifle and charged towards the church shouting "Allahu Akbar", the Arabic phrase meaning "God is Great", according to Father Pavel, the priest who had delivered the service.

Amaq, the propaganda agency for Islamic State, claimed that the group was behind the attack, although it did not offer any evidence.

"Four people were killed. The shooter was shot dead. Two police officers and a woman were wounded," Kizlyar mayor Alexander Shuvalov told Tass.


The gunman targeted worshippers at a Russian Orthodox church in the mainly Muslim region, although no motive has been established yet.

According to Interfax, the shooter has been identified as a local man in his early 20s.

Dagestan is a predominantly Muslim region of the Caucasus, located between the Black and Caspian seas.

It has been the scene of an Islamist insurgency following separatist wars in neighbouring Chechnya.