Mentally unbalanced maniac pushes people down on railway tracks in Moscow metro

An unexampled incident has recently happened in the Moscow metro. A mentally unbalanced passenger, who was supposed to be locked up in an adequate hospital, pushed a 19-year-old girl off a platform down on the railway tracks. The girl stayed alive only by a fluke.

Photo: Mentally unbalanced maniac pushes people down on railway tracks in Moscow metro

Mentally unbalanced maniac pushes people down on railway tracks in Moscow metro

The girl named only as Natasha works as a manager in a fast food restaurant. She had to go to the head office of her company to bring a file of documents there one January afternoon. At about 2:30 p.m. the girl went down to the Moscow metro on the platform of the Vernadsky Avenue station.

A 20-year-old young man was waiting for a train to arrive on the same station. When the police identified the young man later, they found out that he had been a patient of a mental asylum for ten years. In 2003 he was hospitalized with an attack of schizophrenia. He received the necessary medical treatment and was allowed to go home later. However, the young man was still suffering from auditory hallucinations. He said that he originally had an intention to commit suicide, although he changed the plans later and decided that he needed to kill someone instead.

“I was standing close to the edge of the platform waiting for the train to arrive. There were many other people on the platform, although I cannot say that there was a whole crowd of them. The train was appearing in the tunnel when I saw a young man approaching me very fast. At first I thought that I knew him, I even tried to remember if I had ever met him before. When he came up to me he pushed me really hard. I started falling down on the tracks and saw the lights of the train. I realized that I was unable to do anything,” Natasha said.

The train conductor pushed the brakes, but the distance was too short and the girl found herself underneath the train. “I read somewhere that one could survive such an accident if one lies still between the tracks. I did so and closed my eyes tight,” the girl said.

Natasha suffered only a slight injury of her arm.

The criminal was arrested immediately. It turned out as a result of the first interrogation that Vladimir had already been arrested for a similar crime. In 1998 he started a fight in the metro, but did not manage to push anyone down on the tracks. A doctor said that the young man could not control his actions and realize their danger to other people.

Moskovsky Komsomolets

Translated by Dmitry Sudakov

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