Russian Navy Accidentally Fires On Town...Again

Russian Navy Accidentally Fires On Town...Again

A Russian navy warship accidentally fired a 'dummy' artillery round, which has no explosive capacity, into an apartment building in the coastal town of Vladivostok Friday as part of preparations for a holiday celebration, AFP reports.

Nobody was hurt but the shell's impact broke windows and left a small crater outside the nine-storey apartment building in Vladivostok, a port city on Russia's Pacific Ocean coast close to China and Japan.

..."The reasons why the rocket-assisted projectile flew a greater distance than it had been assigned are unknown," [Roman Martov, a spokesman for Russia's Vladivostok-based Pacific Fleet] added.

This is, as it happens, not the first time the Russian navy has bumbled in such a maladroit fashion. In May of this year, a Russian anti-submarine vessel fired 15 rounds into the small town of Pesochnoye, near St. Petersburg, which was reported by the BBC. No injuries occurred during this incident either, but many villagers were temporarily convinced a war had begun. According to the BBC:

Russia's navy has been plagued by a series of accidents since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, including the Kursk submarine disaster in 2000 that left more than 100 sailors dead.

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