Police detain gang staked out by officers killed in Kniazhychi

Ukrainian police on Sunday morning detained a gang of burglars in Kyiv's Desniansky district after they had arrived from the village of Kniazhychi in Kyiv region's Brovary district where five police officers were killed by friendly fire in a shooting incident earlier that day, according to the Ukrainian Interior Ministry. 

They arrived in a Mercedes Vito van to change for the two black Toyota Land Cruiser 200 SUVs they had prepared beforehand for a getaway.

"An arsenal of weapons (including two Glock handguns, a Makarov pistol with a suppressor), ammunition, including hand grenades, special tactical equipment (walkie-talkie sets, radio jammers) and other evidence pointing to illegal activities have been found in the detainees' vehicles," the ministry's media liaison office reported on Sunday.

As UNIAN reported earlier, five members from different state law enforcement agencies were shot dead in a shooting incident between police and the State Guard Service, a police force that protects property, in the village of Kniazhychi in the early hours of December 4. 

Undercover police officers from the criminal investigation department and a SWAT team were watching the scene to detain the burglars, but a burglar alarm went off in a house nearby, prompting the arrival of a State Guard Service group. The latter detained the police officers, having mistaken them for the burglars.