The telephone terrorist who reported the alleged bomb scare on Red Square turned out to be a convict serving time in an Arkhangelsk prison, an Interfax news agency source reported Friday.
Telephone warnings regarding an explosive device planted in the presidential administration buildings, the Sberbank central office and in a cafe adjacent to the GUM department store were made by an inmate at a prison colony in northwest Russia's Arkhangelsk region, Interfax reported, citing an unidentified police source.
The culprit is a 33-year-old Kaluga resident currently serving a 16-year term for a series of armed robberies and in connection with murder — for which he was sentenced in 2002, Interfax reported. The prisoner reportedly suffers from mental illness.
Criminal proceedings against the telephone terrorist are currently underway.
After a series of bomb threat calls, thousands of people were evacuated from the GUM shopping center and Auchan supermarket stores in Moscow, but no explosives have been found, Russian media reported Thursday.
