Russian Cathedral Shooting: A gunman opened fire in a Russian Orthodox cathedral in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk.  The shooting left a nun and a churchgoer dead and six other people injured. The suspect sprayed bullets into the church and was apprehended onsite.

Police say the shooting at the Orthodox Cathedral of the Resurrection in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk happened around 2 p.m. local time (3 a.m. GMT). Most of the people had already left the cathedral and most of those who were still in the church managed to flee, but the nun and a male parishioner tried to stop the attacker and were killed.

The regional leader of the Russian Orthodox Church said most of the people who were injured in the midafternoon shooting were shot in the leg and their lives were not in danger The gunman also destroyed a cross, according to a priest at the church.

The Russian Cathedral shooting happened in Yuznho-Sakhalinsk, which is an island off Russia's eastern coast.  The shooting comes at a time when concerns about security in Russia are especially high because of the Winter Olympics in Sochi. Russian officials say there was no apparent link to the winter Games. Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk is about 4,130 miles from Moscow.

The federal Investigative Committee said the shooter was detained at the Cathedral of the Resurrection of Christ in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk after the shooting.

The gunman is reported to be a 24 year old man employed as a private security guard and armored-truck guard for a local private-security agency.  The priest said the man was expressing his hatred of the church.It's been reported psychiatrists will try to determine the suspect's mental state.

In Moscow, Patriarch Kirill, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church honored the dead as heroes, saying "Those who died today, they in any case died in the temple of God. They tried to prevent that person from defiling our sacred place. They died as heroes, as soldiers on the front line."