SLOVIANSK, May 03. /ITAR-TASS/. Ten people were killed and more than 40 injured in a bloodbath staged by ultranationalist Right Sector militants in the village of Andreyevka on the outskirts of the eastern Ukrainian city of Sloviansk on Saturday, May 3.

Sloviansk’s people’s mayor Vyacheslav Ponomarev said the accident was not combat in the direct meaning of the word. Extremists opened fire at unarmed people not at a roadblock but on a road in the middle of the village. “People blocked the way to the Right Sector column and tried to talk with the militants. In reply, they got automatic gunfire,” he said.

Earlier reports said that the villagers had tried to prevent Right Sector gunmen from going towards Sloviansk, a scene of fierce fighting between militiamen and the Ukrainian regular army units, and formed a living chain across the road to stop trucks and armoured personnel carriers.

The villagers were said to have come to agreement with the gunmen who were supposed to fire their ammunition into the air and leave. However after several bursts of fire into the air the gunmen turned their weapons against the unarmed people.

Initial reports said that one person had been killed and several dozen wounded. Later, the number of casualties increased.