A priest of the Orthodox church in Damascus spoke about the terrorist attack that took place there.

Priest Mitalos Shattah told the details of the terrorist attack that took place on June 22 in an Orthodox church in the Syrian city of Damascus.

He clarified that the first shots were fired outside the church and lasted for two minutes. Then the shooting became intermittent and moved into the courtyard, then its sounds began to be heard already at the entrance to the building.

"Suddenly, two people with suicide belts entered the church and blew themselves up during Mass, which we hold every Sunday," he told a Reuters correspondent.

According to the priest, the state does not take responsibility for protecting parishioners, because it believes that such acts are isolated.

"This gave us the impression that these isolated acts had become systematic, rather than just isolated cases. We are not used to asking anyone for protection. We have always lived under the protection of God," he said.

Shattach then added that the protection of all citizens is the responsibility of the state and its direct responsibility, "not a privilege."

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The explosion at St. Elijah's Church in the eastern part of Damascus, where the Christian population lives, became known on June 22. Later, the Syria TV channel reported the first deaths, their number was 20 people. On the same day, information appeared that one of the suicide bombers was a member of the Islamic State terrorist organization (IS, a terrorist organization banned in the Russian Federation). A local resident, in an interview with Izvestia, reported that the death toll was about 25, as there were two more explosions.