Three people have been arrested in connection with the gun attack at a Russian Orthodox Church in Dagestan, World Watch Monitor (WWM) reported.

Five people died and five others were injured when a gunman targeted St George's Church, Kizlyar, on February 18.  

One of those who was arrested, Magometrasul Gadjiev, 19, studied at the same Muslim seminary as the attacker, Khalil Khalilov, according to the Russian TV channel Dodzd.

Khalilov was reportedly a resident of a village in Dagestan's Tarumovsky district, just north of Kizlyar where the attack took place.

WWM noted that in October 2017, two militants from another village in the same district were killed by the authorities after they were overheard congratulating each other on killing one policeman and injuring another in the Kizlyar district.

According to WWM, there is speculation that Islamist extremists have a base in the Tarumovsky district, in which Kizlyar is the largest town, and use it to supply people with equipment to carry out attacks in nearby towns and villages.

Islamic State (IS) has claimed responsibility for the attack. After Khalilov was killed, a video was found on his phone in which he is seen sitting on the floor in a black mask and reading out an oath of allegiance to the Islamic State. In the video, he also mentions the name of the group's leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. There is a gun and a knife near him and the IS flag is seen hanging on the wall.

Some political analysts have suggested the motive of the attack was to cause division in Kizlyar's multinational population, taking into account the recent increase in Orthodoxy in the region and that churches are now being better cared for by the government, WWM reported.

Others say the attack could have been an attempt to dislodge Vladimir Vasiliev, the new Dagestani president.

A local source told WWM that one of the first victims of the attack was Irina Melkomova, a beggar at the church aged around 60. WWM reported that when she saw Khalilov shooting, she started screaming and beating him with her bags, trying not to let him into the church. She died but her actions reportedly gave time for those inside the church, around 30 people, to lock the church door, with a local priest later calling her a 'hero'.

A deaconess of the church, Nadejda Terliyan, 45, who was the organiser of pilgrimages for church members, was another victim in the attack.

Three police officers who were wounded as they shot Khalilov are still in the hospital, according to WWM.