18 September 2014, 09:24
BBC reporters attacked in Astrakhan
In Astrakhan, while filming a story of the deaths of Russian soldiers near the border with Ukraine, members of the Moscow BBC office were attacked by unidentified men.
Earlier, the "Caucasian Knot" has reported that in early September, the "Committee of Soldiers' Mothers" of the Astrakhan Region received a request of soldiers' relatives and started checking information about the deaths of two soldiers near the border with Ukraine.
The attack on the BBC crew was reported by Steve Rosenberg, a BBC correspondent.
According to his story, at least three violent men attacked the reporters when they left a cafe and went to their car. The attackers seized the reporters' camera, beat the camera man, and then disappeared. According to Steve Rosenberg, while the reporters spent several hours giving testimonies to the police, someone got into their car and erased the video records from the memory cards.
At present, the reporters are in Moscow, and they are in safety, the Russian BBC service reports today.
The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was told by Pyotr Rusanov, the Spokesman of the press service of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) for the Astrakhan Region, that the police are searching for the attackers.
Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.
