Russian police capture suspect in shooting rampage Released from prison in December: Sergei Pomazun had been jailed twice for theft. Photo: AFP/Belgorod Police MOSCOW: A former convict suspected of shooting dead six people, including two teenage girls, in the centre of the Russian city of Belgorod was captured on Tuesday after a 30-hour manhunt, police said. Sergei Pomazun, 32, was detained by two transport police officers who discovered him trying to flee the city on a freight train, Interior Ministry spokesman Kirill Gerasimenko said. One of the officers suffered two knife wounds during the capture and was in hospital, Mr Gerasimenko told state-run Rossiya-24 television. Thousands of police and volunteers had fanned out across Belgorod, a city of 350,000 about 640 kilometres south-west of Moscow, searching for Pomazun after the shootings on Monday. A spokeswoman for the Belgorod police department, Yekaterina Vozhzhova, said "all the city and regional police, riot police reinforced by special units from Moscow" were taking part in the the search for the suspect, who was "extremely dangerous and, in addition, armed to the teeth." Police had not established a motive for the shootings, she said. Shortly after 2pm on Monday, Pomazun allegedly entered a hunting shop in downtown Belgorod, Ms Vozhzhova said. Armed with a carbine rifle he had stolen from his father's firearms safe and about 40 rounds of ammunition, he shot three shop assistants inside and three passersby outside, including two girls aged 16 and 14, before driving away in a black BMW, she said. Five victims died on the spot. The 14-year-old was taken to a hospital, where she died in in the operating theatre. The television news network Russia-24 broadcast chilling footage on Tuesday that showed a man identified as Pomazun shooting the two girls outside the shop. The video was taken by a camera mounted above the shop's front door. The father of the 14-year-old victim, who spent all night grieving at the crime site, was taken to a hospital on Tuesday morning with a heart attack and died later in the day, Russia-24 reported. "We believe the attacker must have taken one or more guns and more rounds from the shop," Ms Vozhzhova said. She said his car had been found not far from the shop and that he was presumed to have continued on foot. Russia-24 reported that an inspection of the shop revealed Pomazun had taken five guns - hunting rifles and shotguns - and a substantial amount of ammunition. Ms Vozhzhova said authorities received dozens of phone calls from people reporting sightings of a man matching Pomazun's description in different parts of the city. Pomazun had served two prison terms for theft, the newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda reported, and had been released from jail in December. Belgorod was quiet on Tuesday morning before Pomazun's capture, with many people remaining indoors and keeping their children home from school, resident Sergei Zhernov said. "My two children will stay at home until the criminal is caught," Mr Zhernov said. Reuters, Los Angeles Times