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Airliner makes emergency landing in south Russia after onboard brawl

One of the passengers hit a female flight attendant in the face

© ITAR-TASS/Vladimir Tukaev

ASTRAKHAN, September 14. /ITAR-TASS/. A passenger airliner en route from Moscow to Gabala in Azerbaijan made an unscheduled landing in Astrakhan in south Russia over a passenger’s brawl aboard the plane, the Astrakhan transport police department said on Sunday.

The incident occurred on Saturday evening.

“It has been established that a passenger born in 1963 hit a female flight attendant in the face without cause out of hooligan motives. The hooligan was detained by the transport police who had arrived at the scene,” the police department said.

An investigation is under way to establish whether the passenger was drunk, the police department said.

A court has issued a ten-day arrest warrant for a hooligan. A judge ruled that the brawler would be held under arrest on the charges of disorderly conduct.

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