Russian Researcher Reportedly Stabs Colleague At Antarctic Research Station

Russia's Bellingshausen Station

The Russian news agency Interfax is reporting that a researcher at Russia's Antarctic station has stabbed and injured a colleague in an apparent emotional breakdown.

The agency said late on October 23 that the incident occurred on October 9 in the station's restaurant.

It added that the injured researcher has been delivered to a hospital in Chile.

There has been no immediate comment from the Russian authorities.

Interfax said the assailant, which it identified as Sergei Savitsky, later voluntarily surrendered to the chief of Bellingshausen Station and was placed under house arrest.

The agency said that the incident resulted from "tensions in a confined space."

Bellingshausen Station was founded by the Soviet Union in 1968 and is named for the 19th-century Russian explorer of the Antarctic.

Based on reporting by AP and Interfax