Police are investigating claims that an unidentified individual chopped down a cross in a St. Petersburg park on Monday, the local interior ministry has said.

The cross reportedly stood at a site on which early 20th century mystic Grigory Rasputin had once been buried.

This comes after a spate of attacks on crosses in Russia and Ukraine in the wake of the Pussy Riot verdict.

Local law enforcement officials have told RIA Novosti they are also considering the possibility that this cross was removed as part of improvement work to the park that includes removing unofficial memorial sites.