Moscow police detain migrants
October 14, 2013Police in the Russian capital conducted a raid on a produce warehouse and detained 1,200 employees on Monday, according to Moscow authorities and the Russian news agency Interfax.
A Moscow police spokesperson told the news agency AFP that authorities had detained the migrant workers "to check their criminal connections."
The site of Monday's arrest had also been the site of a violent riot overnight. Thousands of people gathered to demand justice in the killing of a 25-year-old local man who was stabbed to death on Thursday night. Surveillance camera footage suggested that the murderer might have come from Central Asia or the Caucusus.
Ten buses of riot police were on the scene in Moscow's southern Biryulyovo district on Sunday, where they arrested nearly 400 rioters who had disrupted the peaceful march.
The crowd, chanting "Russia for Russians," "White Power!" and other racist slogans, beat down the doors of a nearby vegetable warehouse where many migrants work and where they thought the suspected killer was hiding.
Other protesters began smashing windows in a shopping center and briefly set it on fire.
It was not immediately clear whether the 380 protesters detained on Sunday night were still being held in police custody.
kms/tj (AFP, dpa)
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