MOSCOW -- Two Russian soldiers armed with Kalashnikov assault rifles shot and killed two police officers Wednesday night and have taken two hostages near Moscow. Interfax reported Thursday that the two soldiers deserted their military unit, stationed in the town of Solnechnogorsk near Moscow, and went to a cafe. They shot and killed two police officers who tried to detain them, Moscow regional police said.
The soldiers then seized a shuttle taxi carrying two women and, using them as human shields, traveled to the town of Dmitrov in the Moscow region, where police surrounded the vehicle.
Holding the two women as hostages, the soldiers entered a residential house occupied by two elderly people. It was reported that the two women managed to escape.
A Defense Ministry official identified the deserters as Alexander Oparin and Dmitry Oparin, who were drafted in the Siberian city of Chelyabinsk and served for one and a half years in a regiment attached to the Frunze Military Academy.
The chief of the military academy "rushed to the scene," the ministry official said.
The two have been encircled, and a special commando unit has been called to disarm them.
