Police in the Altai republic have detained two poachers who allegedly fired at a park patrol from a hut in a nature reserve, a park official said Friday.
A park task force discovered the pair during a patrol Wednesday, senior inspector at the Altai nature reserve Sergei Abramov told RIA-Novosti.
The two men, who were drunk, locked themselves in their hut on the taiga and refused to surrender, Abramov said.
When the task force signaled that the men had fired at them, police were called in to assist in an operation to seize the men Thursday.
A group of eight officers from the riot police and a rapid response unit accompanied park officials to the hut, where the men surrendered after they had sobered up, Abramov said. The men claimed that they had never fired at the patrol, he added.
Police discovered two unregistered hunting rifles on the pair, who said they had been planning to hunt for musk deer and sable.
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