A group of teenagers in St. Petersburg stabbed a 9-year-old Tajik girl to death and beat her father and 11-year-old cousin in a brutal attack that prompted calls Tuesday for tougher action against racially motivated crime.

Yusuf Sultanov, a 35-year-old Tajik citizen, was returning home from an ice rink at around 9 p.m. Monday with his daughter Khursheda and nephew Alabir when 10 to 12 teenagers ran up from behind, St. Petersburg police said.

The teens, wielding brass knuckles, chains, sticks and knives, attacked the trio with in a courtyard and stabbed Khursheda 11 times in the chest, stomach and arms, police said.

By the time an ambulance arrived at the scene, the girl had died from an excessive loss of blood

Alabir Sultanov managed to get away from the attackers and hide under a nearby parked car until help arrived.

He and Yusuf Sultanov suffered minor head injuries. The boy was taken to a hospital for observation overnight and released Tuesday, while the father was treated at the scene and declined to go to the hospital, police said.

Police said the teenagers fled the scene of the attack. They were searching for the attackers Tuesday.

A few drops of blood remained Tuesday on the trampled snow of the courtyard where the girl died, just meters from the building on Pereulok Boitsova in central St. Petersburg where her family rents an apartment.

Dark-skinned people from Russia's southern republics and other former Soviet republics have often been the targets of racially motivated attacks in recent years -- causing President Vladimir Putin to demand that tougher laws be passed to prevent such crime. Legislators responded by approving an extremism law that human rights activists consider largely toothless.

Monday's killing brought a swift response from politicians.

"In our multi-ethnic country, the government can and must protect the interests of all residents, regardless of their ethnic background," said Ilya Klebanov, the presidential envoy to the Northwest Federal District.

"I have given strict orders to the Northwest's security services to mobilize all of their forces and toughen measures to prevent similarly disgraceful incidents," he said, in comments carried by Interfax.

Nationalities Minister Vladimir Zorin said this "bestial murder ... is a bare-faced challenge to all of us."

"This shows us once again that we can't let up for even one minute in our fight against extremism," he was quoted by Interfax as saying. "This crime must be solved, and the guilty parties brought to justice."

 

Itar-Tass The courtyard of 4 Pereulok Boitsova in central St. Petersburg where Sultanova died.

But St. Petersburg police said there was no evidence that the perpetrators were members of an extremist group and suggested that the attack may not have been racially motivated.

"It's very strange that they would choose to stab the little girl to death and only beat the father," St. Petersburg police spokesman Pavel Rayevsky said.

He said police are looking into the possibility that the slaying was connected to the business activities of Yusuf Sultanov, who worked as a lifter at the Sennoi marketplace in the center of the city. Rayevsky hinted that the attack could be tied to drug trafficking.

"It's no secret that immigrants from Tajikistan are often involved in the drug trade," Rayevsky said, noting that the country is a key stopover point for drugs smuggled from neighboring Afghanistan.

"But we are looking at all possibilities. And make no mistake: When we catch these guys, they will all be brought up on murder charges," he said.

St. Petersburg has about 20,000 skinheads, according to NTV television. A 6-year-old Gypsy was beaten to death at a railroad station outside the city in October, and police have arrested several skinheads in connection with the attack.

Nazar Mirzada, an official representative of the Tajik community in St. Petersburg, said Monday's attack appeared to be racially motivated and that he plans to hold a meeting of community leaders to discuss the situation Wednesday.

"We need to warn our people to be careful, to help the family, and also prevent our community from reacting negatively," Mirzada said.

He said the Sultanovs moved to St. Petersburg five months ago looking for work and that they plan to return the girl's body to Tajikistan for burial.

St. Petersburg prosecutors have opened a criminal inquiry into the killing. Acting Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliyev has taken the case under his personal control and assigned top detectives to investigate, the ministry said in a statement.

Staff Writer Irina Titova contributed to this report from St. Petersburg.