Three killed in Russia court after defendants try to grab officers' guns

Five defendants were in a lift in a regional court building when they tried to seize arms from officers escorting them

MOSCOW: Three people being taken to stand trial in a Moscow court were shot dead after they tried to grab side-arms from court security officers and escape, Russian law enforcement officials said on Tuesday.

Five defendants were in a lift in the Moscow regional court building when they tried to seize the weapons from the officers escorting them, Tatyana Petrova, a spokeswoman for Moscow region police, told Russian state television.

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She said that three of the defendants were shot as they tried to escape, and two others were wounded.

Three law enforcement officials were wounded, said Petrova
and Yevgeny Kubyshkin, a spokesman for the Russian national
guard, which had an officer in the court.

A lawyer for the defendants, citing the chief investigator in their case, told Reuters earlier that four of the accused had been killed in a gunfight which broke out in the building of the Moscow Regional Court.