Police officers are seen in the site where a gunman killed at least six people in the streets before being shot dead by police, in Kyiv, Ukraine, April 18. AP-Yonhap
KYIV, Ukraine — A gunman wielding an automatic weapon killed six people and barricaded himself inside a supermarket with hostages in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, on Saturday, before he was shot and killed by police, authorities said.
At least 14 people were wounded and taken to hospital.
The 58-year-old attacker was not named by police, but Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he was born in Russia, as authorities worked to piece together a motive for the violence.
The mass shooting — unheard of in wartime Kyiv following Russia's all-out invasion of Ukraine in 2022 — took place in a busy central district of the city, outside an apartment block and a nearby shopping center, leaving bodies on a crowded street as bystanders fled for safety.
An Associated Press reporter at the scene saw victims’ bodies in the street covered with emergency blankets before they were taken away.
Police officers are seen at the site where a gunman killed at least six people in the streets before being shot dead by police, in Kyiv, Ukraine, April 18. AP-Yonhap
“The assailant has been neutralized. He had taken hostages and, tragically, killed one of them. He also murdered four people on the street. Another woman died in the hospital due to severe injuries,” Zelenskyy said.
“It has been established that the attacker set fire to an apartment before taking to the streets with a weapon," Zelenskyy said in a video posted online. "He had a prior criminal record, had lived in the Donetsk region (in eastern Ukraine) for a long period, and was born in Russia.”
Ukraine’s special tactical police units stormed the convenience store after attempts to contact the gunman with a negotiator failed, Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said.
Source: Korea Times News
