KYIV, Ukraine: Six people were killed in Kyiv on Saturday after a gunman opened fire and took hostages at a supermarket in the Ukrainian capital before being killed during an arrest attempt, officials said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that at least 14 people were hospitalised with wounds and trauma after the shooting and hostage-taking, which took place in a residential district in the city´s south.
“He was holding hostages and, unfortunately, killed one of them. He killed four people right on the street. Another woman died in the hospital from severe injuries,” Zelensky said on social media, adding that four hostages from the supermarket “have been rescued”. “The attacker has been eliminated,” he said, offering condolences to the victims´ families.
An AFP reporter saw the supermarket -- which had blood stains on its shop window -- cordoned off by a heavy security presence, with officers wearing bulletproof vests and crime investigators arriving at the scene.
An employee of the supermarket, Tetyana, told AFP that she had heard sounds “in the store, like champagne being popped or balloons bursting several times. Then the customers started shouting, ´Run!´”. “There´s a spot where you can hide behind the refrigerators, and we ran there. I heard a man moaning,” she recounted, her voice trembling.
