Three people killed over who has the right to work at a cemetery

Three people were killed on Saturday when a mass brawl involving hundreds of men broke out at the Khovanskoye cemetery in Moscow, involving 200 immigrants from former Soviet Central Asia and residents from Russia's volatile North Caucasus.

A spokesman for Moscow's health department said in a statement:

"At the moment, we have 26 injured and three dead." "Twenty-three people were hospitalised, four of them with serious injuries," the official said.

According to various reports, the fight at the

Footage shown on the TV news channel LifeNews showed dozens of men armed with staves, steel bars and guns fighting inside the cemetery and at its entrance. Police said that even though some people had guns, no gun was fired during the fight.

The Russian interior ministry said the fight seemed to have started due to a dispute over who had the right to work on the cemetery, which is a massive 200-hectare (500-acre) site on Moscow's southwestern rim.

Russian police added that two of the people killed during Saturday's fracas were run over by a car fleeing the scene. Three people in the car, all reportedly armed with guns, were arrested.



Source: AFP