In a bizarre throwback to the days of old, a horse went loose in downtown Moscow late Tuesday, injuring three female pedestrians in an hourlong rampage — and disappeared.
The victims were Nadezhda Andreyeva, 85, Nina Parkhomova, 77, and Maria Popova, 42, a district police spokesman, Andrei Obyedkov, said by telephone Wednesday. All were hospitalized in critical condition with concussions, bruises and broken bones, he said.
The animal, a mare, galloped five kilometers across the Tagansky district toward Kitai-Gorod, Interfax reported.
The horse was never caught, and its owner remains unidentified, Obyedkov said.
He said it was the first such incident to his memory. However, a similar though smaller-scale scare took place in the city’s north in October, when police staged a half-hour hunt for a stray goat that disrupted traffic by trying to ram passing cars. Reports at the time said its owner was identified, but did not give the name.
