Policemen stand guard after a taxi ploughed into crowds of people in central Moscow, Russia. (Reuters)
A taxi mounted a packed pavement and rammed into a group of pedestrians near Moscow’s Red Square on Saturday, injuring eight people, including two Mexicans in the city for the soccer World Cup which Russia is hosting. CCTV footage posted on social media showed the car veer out of a queue of stationary traffic and accelerate into pedestrians before coming to a halt. The incident, which happened at a short distance from the Kremlin, comes a day after the US State Department updated its travel advice on Russia, saying terrorist groups were plotting attacks.
Moscow police said the driver was a 28-year-old national from Kyrgyzstan, who has been taken into custody. The driver said he wanted to brake but accidentally hit the accelerator instead, according to a video published by police. However, Russia’s Interfax news agency said the driver had fallen asleep at the wheel. Even though authorities have not ruled out the terror angle, they believe the incident was not intentional.
* What happened in Moscow? Was the incident a terror attack?
Video of the incident posted on social media shows a yellow Hyundai taxi pull sharply out of a line of stationary traffic, accelerate and mount the narrow pavement, which was packed with pedestrians. The taxi drove for about 10 metres along the pavement, bowling over pedestrians and carrying some on the bonnet of the car. It came to a halt after hitting a traffic sign. As bystanders tried to pull open the door, the driver, dressed in black trousers and a black T-shirt, jumped out and sprinted away. More bystanders chased him and could be seen trying to tackle him as the footage ended.
The taxi driver, right, runs away from the scene after he crashed his taxi into pedestrians on a sidewalk near Red Square in Moscow. (AP photo)
Russian authorities have not mentioned the ‘T’ word and have maintained that the incident was not intentional. Police said they had opened a criminal investigation into the suspected violation of the traffic code.
* How many people have been injured?
Russian police said seven people were injured in the incident. Moscow city’s healthcare department, however, said eight people had been hurt and taken to hospital, of whom seven were in a satisfactory condition, while one woman was seriously hurt. The Mexican embassy in Moscow said two Mexican women suffered light injuries. Also among those hurt were a Ukrainian, two Russians and two citizens of Azerbaijan, Russia’s RIA news agency said.
* Who is the accused? What has he revealed?
The driver of the vehicle has been identified as Chingiz Anarbek Uulu and a copy of his licence, posted by the Moscow traffic authority posted on Twitter, mentions he was born on April 22, 1990. It gave his birthplace as the town of Kochkor-Ata in Kyrgyzstan, near the border with Uzbekistan. An account on Russian social media platform Odnoklassniki for someone with the same name and date of birth was last updated two years ago.
The taxi drove for about 10 metres along the pavement, bowling over pedestrians and carrying some on the bonnet of the car. (AP photo)
The driver said he wanted to brake but accidentally hit the accelerator instead, according to a video published by police. “I regret very much… I wanted to go home afterwards, to have a sleep,” he said. The driver said he had been working for 20 hours by the time the incident happened. Asked why he ran away, he said he was afraid he would be killed after bypassers beat him.
* Does the accused have a criminal past or links to terrorism?
So far, police have not found any terror links with the driver. Interestingly, the last video Uulu posted on his social media page depicted chapter 82 of the Koran, which discussed judgment day. There was nothing on the page to suggest any links to, or sympathies with, Islamist militant groups.
* What has the police said?
Police said they have opened a criminal investigation into the suspected violation of the traffic code and are interrogating the driver. Moscow’s traffic management authority said the driver was not drunk and Interfax news agency cited a source saying there was no alcohol in his blood.
Ambulance and police work at the site of an incident. (AP photo)
* How has the government responded?
In central Moscow, authorities have installed heavy concrete blocks across the entrances to pedestrian areas following a spate of incidents in European cities in which vehicles were used to mow down people. Police have also beefed up security near stadiums and important locations. Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said in a post on Twitter: “There was an unpleasant incident with a taxi. The driver lost control of the vehicle.”
Eyewitness accounts
A witness told Reuters that some of the people hit were wearing Mexican team colours. Mexico will take on Germany on Sunday in their first World Cup match at Moscow’s Luzhniki stadium, and thousands of Mexican fans are in the Russian capital. A second witness said the driver ran after the accident but was apprehended by bystanders. “He was pulled out of the vehicle, he ran off but bystanders apprehended him. He was shouting: ‘It wasn’t me’,” he said.
Another witness, Viktoria Geraimovich, said she called emergency services on her mobile phone. “The driver ran into a group of Mexicans. There were shouts, moans. He was only stopped because he hit a traffic sign,” she said. “Someone gave him a punch in the face. He stayed in the car, people came up to him, said what are you doing, punched him in the face, he opened the door and tried to run away. It’s scary that it was in the centre (of Moscow) and I was right opposite,” she further said.
(With inputs from agencies)