A young conscript allegedly opened fired on fellow soldiers in the eastern Ukrainian city of Dnipro, killing five people and injuring five others on Thursday.
Police and the Interior Ministry said the conscript allegedly took an AK47 and ammunition from the armory before shooting at colleagues just before 4 a.m. local time (0200 GMT).
He was captured Thursday morning after going on the run in the town of Pidhorodne some 20 kilometers (12.5 miles) north of the mass shooting, the police affirmed.
During the incident, twenty-two soldiers were on guard duty. Two of them were able to flee and contact police and an ambulance.
Accordingly, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has ordered a probe into the incident, calling the mass shooting “terrible” and offered condolences to the victims’ families and friends.
The Interior Ministry wrote on Telegram that the the shootings occurred “on the territory of the Yuzhny Machine-Building Plant Yuzhmash.”
“A soldier of the National Guard of Ukraine,” who they named as a 20-year-old conscript, was responsible for the incident.
A female soldier was among those who died after succumbing to her injuries, according to the interior ministry.
National police and national guardsman are on high alert following the incident, Interfax reported.
Moreover, Ukraine’s State Bureau of Investigation stated that the gunman called police and surrendered in the town of Pidgorodne just north of Dnipro.
The site of the shooting has been sealed off and civilians are being directed away from the scene.
