MOSCOW, Jan. 11 (Xinhuanet) -- A young man wounded nine people with a knife on Wednesday in a synagogue in downtown Moscow, police said.

    The man rushed into the synagogue during an evening prayer service and started stabbing people at random with a knife, the synagogue's rabbi Iskhak Kogan was quoted by the Itar-Tass news agency as saying. The rabbi and his son subdued the attacker, who was later taken into police custody.

    Nine people were wounded in the attack and all of them have been taken to hospitals, police said.

    The attacker said "I've come here to kill" when he was asked by people at the synagogue why he had come, according to the rabbi.

    The rabbi also said tensions around the synagogue have increased recently. "I cannot describe this as threats, but we have appealed to the Interior Ministry and the Federal Security Service to help us and beef up security," he was quoted by the Interfax news agency as saying.

    The Moscow city prosecutor's office identified the attacker as 20-year-old Moscow resident Alexander Koptsev but gave no further details about him. Enditem