Armenia: Ashtarak vice-mayor wounded in armed incident

Vice-mayor of the Armenian city of Ashtarak Vardan Safaryan was wounded in an armed incident.

The police received a signal about a brawl at the entrance to one of the recreation areas, where shots were fired, and were wounded people, Sputnik-Armenia reports.

Police and investigators, who arrived at the scene, found out that Galust G, 65-year-old, his son, and the head of the Ashtarak community Tovmas Shaginyan had argued over land issues.

During the conflict, several people approached them, knocked Galust G to the ground and began punching and kicking him. They also hit him with stones.

At that moment, Galust’s son fired several shots in the direction of the attackers from the machine gun he had.

As a result, Vardan Safaryan and another man were injured. They were taken first to the Ashtarak hospital, and then to the Erebuni medical center in Yerevan.

When examining the scene of the incident, shell casings, traces of blood, knives, iron rods and sticks were found.

A criminal case has been opened and an investigation is underway.