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Vandal setting church on fire in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky detained

Overnight to January 29 he broke into the church in the criminal pursuit for money

PETROPAVLOVSK-KAMCHATSKY, February 6 (Itar-Tass) —— A vandal, who set the St. Trinity Cathedral on fire in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, was detained in Kamchatka, the press service of the police department in the Kamchatka Territory told Itar-Tass on Monday.

The suspected vandal is a resident of the Khabarovsk Territory with previous convictions that lived in Kamchatka since 2008. The detectives found that the vandal lived at the St. Pantaleon friary in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky for a year and learnt well the interior design of the St. Trinity Church.

Overnight to January 29 he broke into the church in the criminal pursuit for money. To conceal the traces of the crime he set the alms boxes in the church on fire. The icon of St. Nicholas the Miracle-Worker was damaged in the easternmost Orthodox church in Russia in the fire. The fire was put out quickly.

Two days later (overnight to February 1) the criminal has stolen the strongbox with 300,000 roubles from the monastery, where he lived. Failing to open it, the suspect abandoned the stolen things, and escaping from justice, he left Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky for the district centre Milkovo, where the police detained the latter.

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