Russian soldier kills 8 fellow soldiers, injure two others

By Bimbo Ogunnaike

Russian Defense Ministry has disclosed on Friday that a soldier opened on his fellow soldiers in the district of Chita, administrative center of the far eastern Russian Trans-Baikal Territory, killing eight people and injuring another two.

The ministry’s Zvezda broadcasting service said: “The culprit of the incident was detained. According to preliminary data, the cause of the incident could be a nervous breakdown caused by personal circumstances unrelated to military service.”

The two injured were promptly taken to a hospital and they are not in life-threatening condition, it said.

A commission of the ministry headed by Deputy Minister Col. Gen. Andrei Kartapolov took off for the location of the incident, Zvezda said.