By RIA Novosti,
Kemerovo (Russia) : A man heavily in debt was shot dead by the police during a failed bank robbery attempt in Russia, authorities said Monday.
Armed with a gun and grenade, Igor Yerofeyevsky took three female bank clerks and two guards hostage Friday evening at the Leninsk-Kuznetsk branch of URSA bank. He demanded money and free passage out of the region before being shot dead by special armed police.
“One of Yerofeyevsky’s main motives was to steal money to clear his debts. According to his common-law wife, in the last few days officials and bailiffs had visited the house with debt demands,” Nadezhda Ananyeva said.
Ananyeva also said that investigators had discovered a dummy explosive device during a search of the apartment.
According to government sources, the unemployment rate in Russia hit 1.89 million as of Feb 24 as companies slashed jobs amid the global financial crisis, which has caused a fall in demand for raw materials on world markets, the depreciation of the ruble and 13.8 percent inflation in the country in 2008.