Authorities in the Urals have detained a 48-year-old man on suspicion of murdering four people with an ax after losing a card game.
The suspect had arrived Tuesday from a nearby village with a female partner for a medical exam in Beryozovo, a village in the Khanty-Mansiisk autonomous district about 1900 kilometers from Moscow.
They spent the night at the apartment of a “casual acquaintance,” according to investigators, where the suspect played cards with three guests.
After losing the game, the intoxicated suspect entered into an altercation with his 19-year-old fellow card player, the regional branch of the Investigative Committee said in an online statement.
“Armed with an ax, the man delivered successive blows to the apartment’s landlady and three of her guests,” the statement said, adding they all died of their injuries.
Police apprehended the suspect after he tried to flee the crime scene.
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