STAVROPOL, Russia. Nov 29 (Interfax) - Sergei Ushakov, deputy head for security of the government of Stavropol, a region in southern Russia, said he could see no ethnic motives behind an armed conflict between Chechens and Cossacks in a local town in early on Saturday and that the clash was "an act of hooliganism pure and simple."
"Law enforcement agencies will issue their own qualification," Ushakov told Interfax.
He said the conflict had broken out when local young men stood up for a girl.
A group of visitors arrived in the town of Zelenokumsk on November 21 from Chechnya, Ushakov said. "They insulted a girl, whom local men tried to defend," which led to a quarrel and "eventually an armed conflict," he said. "About eight people were injured."
Police arrived and arrested those who started the incident, Ushakov said.
He said senior police and prosecution service officials, detectives, representatives of the Cossack movement and local government figures had arrived at the site. "At present the situation in the town and its district is under control and quiet," Ushakov said.
Earlier, the regional police authority said the conflict had brought together about 100 people.
A group of young men living in Zelenokumsk defended an under-age girl who had complained to them that local Chechens had tried to force her into a car, the authority said in a press release.
"The defenders got a rebuff with non-lethal weapons and firearms fired from the car. As a result, seven Cossacks and one Chechen received wounds and other injuries," the authority said.
The release said police had prevented the conflict from escalating. The Cossacks and Chechens went back to their homes by 3 a.m., it said.
A criminal investigation was launched, weapons were seized, and the driver and passengers of the car were taken to a police station, the release said.
"Measures are being carried out to achieve civil conciliation in the communities of the Sovetsky district and [Stavropol region] with the participation of law enforcement agencies, local government authorities, ethnic communities and clergy," it said.
A source in the law enforcement services of the North Caucasus Federal District told Interfax that four men had been taken to the Sovetsky district police authority and that one of them had been put in detention. "He is probably a Chechen who may have been one of the instigators of the conflict," the source said.