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Kiev police detain man who opened gunfire on downtown avenue Monday

Several shots made nearby a downtown restaurant by an unknown man

KIEV, April 01, /ITAR-TASS/. Police in Kiev have detained and are questioning the man who opened gunfire on the downtown Kreshchyatik Avenue Monday, the Ukrainian Interior Ministry said.

At the demand of the residents of Kiev who were scared by the gunfire, the police sealed off the building of hotel Dnipro where, according to eyewitness accounts, “several dozens of men armed with automatic assault rifles” were staying.

“We inform the public hereby that the situation is fully under controls and repetitions of the terrorist actions will not be permitted by the Interior forces,” the report said.

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Top Kiev official wounded in shooting incident in city center

Earlier information released by the ministry said that a report was received by the Shevchenko district department of the police at around 20:00 hrs local time Monday on several shots made nearby a downtown restaurant by an unknown man.

“Detectives and operatives arrived on the spot immediately and top police officials and representatives of the public quarters followed then suit,” the police report said. “Investigators established that one of the customers had walked out of the restaurant into the courtyard and had opened fire.”

“As a result of the incident, three persons were wounded,” it said. “They were admitted to a nearby hospital where physicians diagnosed them with wounds in the chest, in the lower back and in the shank.”

“The wounded born in 1958, 1995 and 1990 are residents of the city of Kiev, the Kiev region and the Autonomous Republic of Crimea respectively,” the report indicated.

One of the men in a very serious condition and he has been given a surgery, physicians at the hospital where the man had been taken told the Ukrainian Interior Ministry.

Interim Acting Interior Minister Arsen Avakov said earlier that fire had been opened by a militant of the Right Sector ultra-nationalistic organization and one of the wounded was Kiev’s deputy mayor Bogdan Dubas.

“The causes of the incident are unknown and the wounded are at hospital,” Avakov said, adding that the malefactor had been blocked in one of the rooms inside the restaurant.

However, representatives of the Right Sector outdid the police in getting to the spot of the incident first and escorted the man to hotel Dnipro.

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