A police officer was shot and wounded near the Foreign Ministry building in Moscow yesterday evening. Citing the Russian Investigative Committee, Russian media reports say the unidentified attacker was injured when police fired back and he was taken to hospital.
“A man, who was walking along the Sivtsev Vrazhek Lane in Moscow has opened fire at the police officers with no apparent reason as they were passing by,” Yulia Ivanova, a spokeswoman for the Russian Investigative Committee, told the state-run Interfax news agency.
She added that the assailant, whose motive was unclear, was taken to hospital.
Tass and Interfax later quoted police as saying that the attacker died of a head wound.
RT news agency says the weapon resembles the Soviet-made Stechkin automatic pistol while the Interfax news agency reported that the attacker fired a non-lethal weapon.
The police told the Sputnik news agency that the wounded officer was shot in the leg, and his life is out of danger.
According to Interfax, police identified the attacker as Renat Kunashev, 30-year-old resident of the Russian province of Kabardino-Balkariya in the North Caucasus.
The assailant's motives weren't immediately clear, but police said they don't believe that he had any links to Islamist militants active in some of North Caucasus regions.
Russia’s Investigative Committee spokeswoman says criminal proceedings on the endangerment of the life of a law enforcement officer have been instituted.
Meanwhile Western media reports say the incident in Moscow comes days after Islamist militants launched a series of attacks in Chechnya, leaving at least five teenage militants dead and several police officers wounded. IS claimed responsibility for Monday's attacks in Chechnya.
Express says Russia has faced a wave of violence and terrorism in recent years, with 30 incidents and 36 recorded deaths in 2017 alone.
