MOSCOW, February 11 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - A nine-year-old Muslim Tajik girl was beaten and stabbed to death by Russian extremist neo-Nazis skinheads, severely wounding her father and 11-year-old cousin in St. Petersburg, press papers said on Wednesday, February 11.

"The girl received 11 knife wounds and died on the spot," said Yelena Ordynskaya, spokeswoman for the city's prosecution office.

The hate crime occurred at about 9 p.m. on Monday, February 9 at the centre of Russia's second city Saint Petersburg, the Moscow Times said.

The father, Yusuf Sultanov, a 35-year-old Tajik citizen, was returning home with his daughter Khursheda and nephew Alabir when 10 to 12 teenagers ran up from behind, St. Petersburg police said.

Sources of the Russian police said that teenagers wielding brass knuckles, chains, sticks and knives attacked the three, stabbing Khursheda 11 times in the chest, stomach and arms which led her to bleed to death.

The 11-year old boy, Alabir, survived as he ran under a nearby parked car until help arrived, the paper added.

However, he and the father sustained sever head injuries as the boy was taken to the hospital when as he was released Tuesday.

The Russian paper said that Yusuf refused to go to hospital and was treated at the scene of the attack.

"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 added.

Klebanov, however, condemned the attack after holding a close-door meeting with top law enforcement calling it "cruelty reminiscent of the Middle Ages".

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," Keblanov said.

Racist attacks against civilians from Russia's southern republics and other former Soviet republics occur regularly in large Russian cities as usually targeting Muslim students, the Moscow Times said.

The paper added that such actions caused the Russian President Vladimir Putin to demand that tougher laws be passed to prevent such crime.

However, legislators passed a law against extremism, but it was described by the human rights activists as powerless.

St. Petersburg has about 20,000 skinheads who were formerly convicted in similar crimes, the NTV television said.

On the other hand, the official representative of the Tajik community in St. Petersburg, Nazar Mirzada, rang alarm bells over such crimes.

Calling the attacks racially-motivated, Mirzada said 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.

St. Petersburg prosecutors have opened a criminal inquiry into the killing.