Situation stabilises after mass unrest in Moscow

Moscow, Oct 14 (IANS/ITAR -TASS) The situation in Moscow's Biryulyovo West district is gradually stabilising after Sunday's mass unrest, police said.

Clashes with police and other unlawful actions have ceased after police stepped up security measures in the city.

Following the killing of 25-year-old Muscovite Yegor Shcherbakov by an unidentified man on the intervening night of Oct 9-10, a rally was held in Biryulyovo Sunday, with people demanding that the killer of the young man be found and punished and that the papers of all migrants living in the district be checked up.

After the rally, which went off peacefully, a group of people, among them adherents of nationalist movements and soccer fans, at first smashed the Biryuza shopping centre then they began to overturn and smash cars, and forced their way into the vegetable warehouse.

Clashes ensued between the protesters and police. Six policemen were injured.

Later on, a crowd gathered outside the shopping centre again, hurling bottles and hammers. At the same time cars in Vostryakovsky Lane and near the Biryulyovo-Tovarnaya (freight) railway station were also smashed.

The situation is relatively calm now. About 50 people remain outside the shopping centre. They stand silently, do not chant any slogans and put forward no demands.

Police wearing helmets and bullet-proof vests have lined up along the road. Many police buses still remain near the shopping centre and ambulances are nearby as well.

All streets in the district are being patrolled by beefed-up police details who check up the identity papers of young men.

--IANS/ITAR-TASS

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