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Extremists take advantage of developments in Moscow’s south - police chief

The police chief said about 200 people had been detained
Photo ITAR-TASS
Photo ITAR-TASS

MOSCOW, October 13 (Itar-Tass) - All Moscow police were placed on alert amid unrest in the Biryulyovo district in southern Moscow, in which 200 people were detained, Moscow police chief Anatoly Yakunin said at an emergency session late on Sunday.

He was referring to the developments in Biryulyovo Zapadnoye in connection with the death of a 25-year-old man, stabbed in the heart with a knife late on Thursday. Local residents, who blame the murder on migrant workers, got together at the site of his death on Sunday demanding punishment for the murderer.

“On Sunday, extremist minded people decided to take advantage of the situation. They got together at the site where Yegor Shcherbakov had been murdered, about 400 people, many of them intoxicated. Those were young people, and unfortunately there were women among them,” Yakunin said.

According to him, a group of extremist were stirring up the crowd, and “people found themselves on the verge of breaking the law, while the situation verged on mass disorders”.

They began “overturning cars, threw a flare into some office, tried to storm a local vegetable warehouse,” Yakunin said. He said the police leadership had to use to riot police squads.

The police chief said about 200 people had been detained, including active participants in the developments responsible for escalating the situation.

He said a special plan was in place for the city, and police patrols had been beefed up in other districts of the capital.