A rescue worker who lost his hand when he was attacked by a gang armed with a machete in Moscow on Sunday will continue to work for the Emergency Situations Ministry as a trainer after he recovers, the TASS news agency reported Thursday.
Yevgeny Nikulin, 23, and several of his friends were attacked in southwest Moscow late Sunday evening by a group of men with a machete and meat cleaver for no obvious reason, the LifeNews tabloid reported Wednesday. Nikulin's friends managed to escape, but he was unable to run away because of a metal pin inserted in his leg during a recent operation.
The attackers tried to decapitate him, but instead cut off his hand when he raised it in order to protect himself, the report said. After that they cut off part of his leg and fled the scene. Nikulin was quickly admitted to a hospital, where doctors managed to reattach the missing part of his leg, but not his hand — it was only found a day later, LifeNews reported.
Doctors said he will be able to walk after a rehabilitation course. “Yevgeny has considerable work experience … so he will stay at the institute [the MChS state firefighting institute in Voronezh], get a higher education and will train staff,” Alexander Gavrilov, the institute's head, was cited by TASS as saying Thursday.
LifeNews said the gang members have been identified by the police and only one of them is suspected of the attack on Nikulin. He has not yet been detained, the report said. Some of the other gang members have been questioned by police as witnesses.
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