Unidentified assailants on Monday shelled the studios of a top independent television station, damaging the building but hurting no one as the ex-Soviet republic is preparing for next month’s parliamentary elections, officials said.
The offices of the Rustavi-2 station were shelled from a grenade launcher shortly before dawn on Monday. The grenades pierced a hole in the building’s concrete wall just centimetres away from the 17-storey premises where the station’s staffers were working, said Georgian Security Minister Valery Khaburdzaniya.
The Russian-made Mukha grenade launchers apparently used in the attack later were found 200m away from the building. Residents of the nearby buildings heard the sound of explosion, but didn’t see the attackers, Malkhaz Salakaya, a Security Ministry investigator, told Rustavi-2.
Georgia has remained tense in the run-up to the January 4 presidential election, which follows after President Eduard Shevardnadze stepped down under the opposition’s protests in October. — Sapa-AP