A video of a woman walking naked across the snowclad "oil capital" of Russia to a church, reportedly to shed off evil spirits, has gone viral.
Footage captured by a cellphone and published online shows the woman, nude but for a purple turban, calmly walking barefoot across the snow, while holding a crying infant in her arms.
The video shows how she then bows and crosses herself at the gates of an Orthodox Christian church and walks in.
Inside, the unidentified woman told astonished believers she was exorcising "evil spirits," Siapress.ru said.
The incident took place Sunday in the city of Nizhnevartovsk in western Siberia, the report said.
The woman, who has no record of mental problems or drug abuse, was sent to a psychiatric facility, the report cited local police as saying. Though reportedly unharmed, the child was taken to a local hospital.
It remained unclear how a walk in the nude in temperatures as low as -12 degrees Celsius could serve to banish an unwanted supernatural presence.
