TOLYATTI, Samara Region, November 23 (AVN) - The police were set on high alert in the central Russian town of Tolyatti, home of the famous VAZ automobile plant, on Thursday following eight murders committed here two days before, a spokesman for the Samara region police department told the Military News Agency.
Unidentified gunmen shot dead five businessmen from other Russian regions in Hotel Stavropol overnight to Tuesday, the spokesman said. Three of them had come from the western Siberian city of Tyumen and bought three VAZ cars and a batch of spare parts. The other two victims arrived here from the city of Karaganda in neighbouring Kazakhstan for the same purpose.
Three more buyers of VAZ cars were found dead elsewhere in the town later in the day, the spokesman noted.
The Russian Interior Ministry has sent a brigade of investigators to Tolyatti to assist the local police in detection and arrest of the criminals. The heads of the Samara region criminal investigation department and anti-mafia department have also arrived here, and the regional department of the Federal Security Service (FSB) was asked to take part in the investigation.