CHISINAU (MOLDOVA): A Tajikistan national who was denied entry into Moldova at its main international airport grabbed a guard's weapon and fatally shot two security officers on Friday, officials said. One traveller also was wounded.
The suspect was being escorted by officials at Chisinau International Airport when he “took the gun of a border guard” and opened fire, authorities said. Special forces then intervened, subdued the suspect and handcuffed him, leaving him seriously injured. All passengers were evacuated from the airport.
Tajik authorities said that he is wanted in his native country in relation to the kidnapping of a local bank official.
The General Prosecutor's Office of Tajikistan named the assailant as Rustam Ashurov, saying he is a member of an organised criminal group that on June 23 kidnapped the deputy chairman of a Tajik bank in Dushanbe, the country's capital.
Moldova’s acting Prosecutor General Ion Munteanu told journalists late Friday that the Ashurov had arrived from Istanbul, Turkey. He said the Tajik national was being treated in hospital for “serious injuries” sustained while being detained, and that he was under police supervision.
Prosecutors are investigating the incident as a possible terrorist attack, Munteanu added.
Moldova's President Maia Sandu said that the two people killed were a border police officer and an airport security employee.
“We send our sincere condolences to the bereaved families and relatives, the loss of loved ones is a great pain for the families,” Sandu wrote in a statement on Facebook. “It’s a sad day for all of us.”
The prosecutor's office said that after a criminal investigation was launched, Ashurov, 43, a resident of Dushanbe, fled to Moldova via Turkiye with the aim of going into hiding in EU countries.
The head of Moldova's police, Viorel Cernauteanu, told reporters that there was no wider risk to the country from the incident.
Asked if Ashurov had connections to Russia's Wagner mercenary group, Cernauteanu said there was no evidence that the suspect has relationships with military or paramilitary structures and he was not listed in any international search system.
Since Russia invaded Ukraine, neighbouring Moldova, a country with a population of about 2.6 million people, and a European Union candidate since June 2022 has faced a long list of crises.
They included an acute winter energy crisis after Russia dramatically reduced gas supplies and recurring anti-government protests organised by a now-outlawed Russia-friendly political party against the ruling pro-Western administration.
Moldova's leaders have also repeatedly accused Moscow of conducting campaigns to try to destabilise the country, which, like Tajikistan, was a Soviet republic until 1991.