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Kazakhstan bids final farewell to slain Olympic figure skater

Denis Ten will be buried in the town of Druzhba in the Almaty Region

TASS, July 21. The ceremony to bid final farewell to Kazakh Olympic figure skating medalist Denis Ten has ended in Almaty, Tengrinews.kz news web portal reported on Saturday.

"Both Kazakhstan and the entire world are mourning today. We have lost the person who wanted to make the world a kinder and better place," Kazakhstan’s Culture and Sports Minister Arystanbek Muhamediuly said at the ceremony.

Ten will be buried in the town of Druzhba in the Almaty Region.

Denis Ten died in a hospital in Almaty on Thursday afternoon after he had been assaulted by two unidentified suspects and sustained a knife stab.

According to Almaty’s police department, he spotted two unknown suspects trying to dismount and steal side-mirrors of his car at about midday local time (9:00 GMT). As a result of the following brawl with the suspects, the 25-year-old figure skater was stabbed and taken to a hospital, where he died three hours later despite enormous efforts of the medical staff to save his life.

Besides winning the Olympic bronze at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Russia’s Sochi, Denis Ten also grabbed the Figure Skating World Championship’s silver and bronze in 2013 and 2015 respectively.