West-2017: Russian Helicopter Fires At Journalists

Two people were hospitalized with severe wounds.

In the course of the Belarus-Russia military drills West-2017, a Ka-52 fired at the crowd of viewers. As a result of the incident, two people got to hospital with severe wounds, and two automobiles were burnt, 66.RU reports with a reference to an anonymous source.

“They [missiles] were flying in the direction of the target, they were only 500 meters away. According to the task, weapon chains were to be applied on the combat path, they turned them on, but there was some fault, and missiles went off unaided. The splinters have a big burst radius; at least two cars were burnt, two people were seriously injured, now they are in hospital. It was a drill before some kind of show-off. I guess that journalists were the casualties,” — the source informed.

The incident happened at the firing ground Luzhski (Leningrad region). On September 18, Russian leader Vladimir Putin visited it to inspect the drills. The incident might have occurred in the morning before his arrival, but was silenced.