Massacre in Russia’s Ural region: 16-year-old victim tells of how she hid beneath the body of slain party-goer to evade killer

A survivor of a bloody attack that left three dead in Ekaterinburg, at the weekend, has told of how she hid from a rampaging gunman beneath the body of another party guest, who was shot and fell on top of her.

The survivor, 16-year old Maria Kosintseva, ‘played dead’ for four hours after gunman Dmitry Zakharov, 34, opened fire at the gathering, held in his apartment in the central Russian city, on Friday night. He reportedly shot dead three people and injured a fourth, killing himself before police arrived.

In an interview with Ekaterinburg’s Channel Four, the young woman spoke of how Zakharov allegedly entered the room “with a machine gun,” saying “let’s play,” and then began shooting at guests.

She went on to describe how he “shot [Kosintseva’s friend] Polina, then his friend Anton, who, it turns out, fell on me, covering me. And [Zakharov], apparently, thought that he had shot both of us.”

“Then he went to the kitchen. From the kitchen, I heard two more shots, and a little later, a third. He shot himself, it later emerged.” Police attended shortly afterwards and found the girl hiding.

In the rampage, Zakharov killed his “close friends” Oleg Bregnev, 36, and Anton Anisimov, 32, as well as Kosintseva’s friend Polina Bardina, 18. A third girl, Viktoria Paustovskaya, 17, survived a gunshot wound to the chest and remains in a critical condition after undergoing surgery.

Kosintseva claims that the three girls had been lured to the apartment after seeing a post from Zakharov on a local message board. The investigation by police in Ekaterinburg is ongoing.

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