RUSSIA-CHECHNYA/ATTACK Buildings on fire in Chechen capital Grozny after overnight militant attack

Record ID: 355066

  • Title: RUSSIA-CHECHNYA/ATTACK Buildings on fire in Chechen capital Grozny after overnight militant attack
  • Date: 4th December 2014
  • Summary: GROZNY, CHECHNYA, RUSSIA (DECEMBER 4, 2014) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF BUILDINGS ON FIRE, SMOKE BILLOWING
  • Embargoed: 19th December 2014 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA1MJD9YATUL3D63UTVAC4WPAGS
  • Story Text: At least six gunmen and three policemen were killed in gun battles in which a building was stormed in the Chechen capital Grozny on Thursday (December 4), the leader of the turbulent southern Russian region said.
    The attack, before Russian President Vladimir Putin was due to deliver his annual state of the union address in Moscow, underlines the fragile security situation in Chechnya more than a decade after he sent troops to quell separatists there.
    Chechnya's Kremlin-backed leader, Ramzan Kadyrov, wrote on his Instagram account that "six terrorists were annihilated" after they opened fire at a police patrol car, killing three officers, and then stormed offices housing local media.
    The offices were still on fire in the morning with a heavy smoke billowing.
    A spokesman for the Russian Interior Ministry in Moscow said an unspecified operation was still under way in Grozny, but gave no other details.
    Russia's Tass news agency quoted Kadyrov as saying several gunmen remained holed up at a school in the city centre. It was not clear whether any hostages had been taken.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2014. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
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