Knife attacker injures 4 newspaper staff in southern Russia

"An outrageous incident occurred today in Stavropol, a person with a knife attacked the staff at Rodina newsroom, four were wounded. This is a criminal act, the attacker has been detained," the governor said on his Instagram.

The governor added that the lives of the four injured were not at risk, with two of them already discharged by the medics.
A local lawmaker, who witnessed the incident, told Sputnik that the attacker had been monitored at a local mental health facility.

"[The attacker] came on May 13, brought an article about [former USSR leader Joseph] Stalin to the editor-in-chief and demanded that it be immediately published. He was told — we will discuss it at the editors' meeting on Monday and decide," Viktor Lozovoi said.

According to Lozovoi, when told that the article could not be published, the man took out a hunter's knife and launched an attack.

A source in regional law enforcement told Sputnik that the attacker had already had conviction over an armed assault.

“Earlier the man has already been convicted of an armed assault,” the source said.

The regional department of the Russian Interior Ministry told Sputnik that police had already started a pre-investigation activities the site of the incident.

Rodina is being published by a local committee of the Russian Communist Party.

A representative of the local health authorities told Sputnik that one person had been hospitalized after the attack, but their life was not in danger.