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A Jailbreak (14.01.97)

Ten dwellers of the Brest lockup house "unbricked" themselves several days ago. The suspects wanted to avoid their being imprisoned – in accordance with the verdict. They broke through the brick wall of their cell, and escaped. Law-enforcement authorities refrain from commenting this extraordinary event. The spokesman of the Ministry of Internal Affairs told our correspondent that three of the fugitives were arrested immediately, five more were caught by yesterday. Two are still at liberty.

The ten fugitives did not care of the potential punishment for their running away, which was up to three years of imprisonment. They had been charged with more seriouscrimes, including murder. The eldest of the "long distance racers" is 42, while the youngest – 23 years of age.

A commission of high ranking officers went to Brest for the investigation of their flights. Youri Tarabrin, First Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs is among them. Probably some persons will suffer, because Belarus had not heard of group jailbreaks for a long time already. There was a similar case in the 70-ies, when half a dozen murderers and rapists managed to remove floorboards and escape through an underground tunnel. It happened in the lockup at a psychiatric clinic of Novinki, where the sanity of suspects was checked.

Viktir Fedorovich

A house caught fire in the settlement of Ozerische, not far from Minsk, on January, 10. The fire brigade put out the fire soon. The wooden structure remained, but a woman, the owner of the house, choked in the fumes.

The circumstances of the tragedy became known. The son of the deceased had been resting after his night shift. Then the woman’s pension was delivered, and the family decided to celebrate this occasion. The son does not remember how much alcohol he had drunk, or when he went to sleep. He woke up as soon as he felt the smell of the smoke, and tried to put out the fire, but in vain. Then he ran to their neighbours, where there lived two contracted soldiers, Vasili Kirpichenko and Alexander Matchenya. One of them called the fire brigade, the other started fighting the fire. The son suddenly remembered that his mother had remained in the burning house, but it was too late ...

Supposedly, the fire was caused by a forgotten electric heater.

Alexander Stelchenko

The man who worked as both carpenter and plumber at the Minsk co-operative technical school, decided to have his tea in his workshop in the afternoon. He placed an electric heater into a metal mug filled with water, plugged it in, and went away, absorbed in other thoughts.

Suddenly the lights went out in the basement. The carpenter raced to the corridor and saw that black toxic smoke was coming from his shop. He was seriously frightened, because there were petrochemicals, rags, and even calcium carbide there. In the classrooms above there were about 300 students, so the carpenter tried to extinguish the fire, but in vain.

An alarm signal sounded at the check point of the school. All of the students and teachers were rapidly evacuated. The acrid smoke reached the upper floors by this time, filling the staircases, corridors and classrooms. The fire brigade arrived promptly, and escorted the people out of danger ...

Vasili Gomolko

A 45-year-old returned convict died in the city of Orsha, at the local department of transport police. The man had been earlier released from the prison of Gorki which is not far from the city. Free in the morning, he was corked by the evening, but somehow he managed to arrive in Orsha, where he was found in bad condition by local policemen. He refused medical assistance, as an adherent of old thief traditions, and died two hours later. Experts say he died of a traumatic shock, since, when at liberty, he had "a conversation" with someone. As a result, his ribs were fractured and his kidneys batted.

Maksim Trapeznikov

Another "telephone terrorist" has been found in Minsk. A pupil of the seventh form called the police to report that there was a bomb in his school No 1. Evacuation was organised by the police, miners searched the school, but no mines were found. Probably the 12-year-old jester proved to suffer most, because he was handed over to his parents after investigation. And the parents will have to pay for the services rendered ...

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