The Vietnamese wounded in explosion in Moscow dormitory

At 10:20 pm on April 18 there was an explosion in the dormitory where Vietnamese live in North-Eastern District of Moscow.
19 people were wounded, 9 of them were taken to hospital (including the wounded 1-year old Russian child).

The dormitory belongs to Moscow Institute of Transport Engineers which leases bigger part of the building to Salut-2 company founded by Vietnamese.

Spokesman for Moscow Police Kirill Mazurin reported that the blast power was equivalent to 0.5 kg of trinitrotoluol. There is information that remains of self-made bomb with time-fuse were found on the scene.

According to Moscow police, the bomb was of minor power, therefore the criminal proceedings were initiated in the framework of article 213 (“Malicious hooliganism”) of Russian Criminal Code. The police said no proof of extremist groups of youngsters (such as skinheads) involvement in the blast had been detected so far.

The hospitalized child is in critical condition – the bridge of his was cut badly. All the rest of the hospitalized are Vietnamese.
The building was not damaged much, but had all its windows broken.

Currently the investigators are sticking to the version that the explosion in the dormitory resulted from “criminal conflicts within the Vietnamese community”. The version of self-detonation of the explosives kept in one of the rooms in also being scrutinized.

This dormitory accommodating 700 Vietnamese, has been in the law-enforcers’ focus for a long time. In 2003 policemen closed down several illegal workshops for making clothes there, confiscated its products for the sum of 2 million roubles and detained several Vietnamese being in Moscow illegally. According to the Strana.ru source in Moscow police, such illegal workshops are controlled by ethnic criminal gangs charging their fellow-countrymen for the opportunity to do their business. "Probably, some of the dorm residents refused to pay criminals, and they implemented their threats in to practice”.

According to Moscow police, Vietnamese arrive in Russia as tourists or students. After their visa expires, they stay in the country as illegal emigrants. They live in dorms, 8-12 people in one room, and sale clothes at marketplaces.   .

One of their businesses is illegal long-distance phone calls with the use of “pirate” phone equipment. Vietnamese gangs try to conduct their criminal activity only within the community of their fellow-countrymen.

Source: Information agencies