Odessa slaughter: How vicious mob burnt anti-govt activists alive (GRAPHIC IMAGES)
Dozens of people died in flames in Odessa, when radicals set ablaze the local House of Trade Unions with anti-government protesters blocked inside. The city is now in mourning for those who died, suffocated in smoke or had to jump out of windows.
What triggered the tragedy were violent clashes, which erupted on
Friday afternoon between two rival rallies in Ukraine's port-city
of Odessa.
Around 1,500 supporters of the Kiev authorities, accompanied by
aggressive fans of the local football club, Chernomorets, tried
to march through the center of the city chanting “Glory to
Ukraine,” “Death to enemies,” “Knife the
Moskals[derogatory for Russians].” Some of the
people in the group were wearing ultra-nationalist Right Sector
movement insignia, were armed with chains and bats and carried
shields.
Several hundred anti-government activists eventually confronted the procession. Fighting broke out as a result, with members of the rival groups throwing stones, Molotov cocktails and smoke grenades at each other and at police. The pavements were spattered with blood.
The police failed to draw the rival groups apart. As a result, 4 people were killed and 37 wounded in the violence. Police were among the injured.
Street clashes appeared to be only the beginning of the Odessa Friday nightmare, as radicals started to drive anti-government activists back to their tent camp in front of the local House of Trade Unions. Many anti-Kiev protesters eventually hid inside the building.
“Women and children were hiding in the Trade Union’s building,” an eye-witness told RT. “First the armed men set fire to tents, then they started throwing Molotov cocktails and grenades at the building. We heard shots fired and saw smoke,” she added.
The first floor of the Trade Unions building was soon engulfed in flames. The people inside appeared to be trapped.
Dozens eventually burnt alive or suffocated to death. To escape the fire and smoke, people were hanging out of windows and sitting on windowsills. In sheer desperation, some of them eventually jumped to the ground.
Many of those who managed to escape the fire were then brutally
beaten by armed men, believed to be from the ultra-nationalist
Right Sector group, who had the building under siege.
As people were dying in the burning building, some of the
pro-Kiev activists jeered on Twitter that “Colorado beetles are
being roasted up in Odessa,” using a derogatory term for
pro-Russian activists wearing St. George’s ribbons.
About 50 people got to the roof of the burning building and
waited for help there. RT managed to speak to one of them, after
they were later rescued by police.
“We were hiding there [on the roof] from this angry mob,
which forced us inside this building and threw Molotov cocktails
and stones at us,” he said. “People were burned alive
inside the building, they couldn't get out. We couldn't go down,
we were seeing people from other floors being brought down and
then those rioters down there attacked them like a pack of
wolves. We were escorted from the roof and from the building. We
had to step over dead bodies when we were descending the
stairs.”
A total of 46 people died in Odessa’s violence on Friday and
almost 200 others sustained injuries, Odessa Region prosecutor
Igor Borshulyak told journalists on Saturday.
39 of the dead lost their lives in the fire at the Odessa Trade
Unions House, according to the Ukrainian emergencies agency,
which released a statement saying that “31 of the dead were found
inside the building, eight more were found outside by law
enforcement officers.”
Odessa announced on Saturday a three-day mourning for the victims
of the tragedy.
Later, Ukraine’s acting President Aleksandr Turchinov signed a
decree signaling two days of national mourning for those who died
in the special military operation in eastern Ukraine and in mass
clashes in Odessa.
PHOTO: Women bring flowers in memory of at least 46 killed in #Odessa clashes & fire http://t.co/1tMkbc5FB0#Ukrainepic.twitter.com/l5U9ytCe1l
— RT (@RT_com) May 3, 2014
Residents of Odessa have since Saturday morning been laying
flowers outside the burnt out Trade Union building.
Russians have been bringing candles to the Ukrainian embassy in
Moscow to commemorate the dead in Odessa.
