
MOSCOW, November 12 (RIA Novosti) - A drunken 30-year-old military officer threw two eight-year-old girls out of an eighth-floor window of their mother's apartment, a police source said on Thursday.
"Today at about 1:00 a.m. [22:00 GMT Wednesday] eyewitnesses called police, saying that... a man threw two girls out of an eighth-floor window," the source said.
Both girls survived the fall.
The man was living together with the girls' mother in a civil marriage. The officer, whose identity has not been disclosed, sent the mother of the children a text message that read: "Say good-bye to Dasha and Katya," before throwing the girls out the window.
Dasha and Katya Lapuzina were hospitalized with massive internal injuries following the fall. Dasha was diagnosed with a concussion, five broken ribs and a ruptured liver and is in intensive care. She is on a life support breathing machine, recovering from an operation on her liver.
"We also suspect an injured backbone, but her spinal cord is not affected," a doctor told RIA Novosti.
Her sister, Katya, is in stable condition. Although she was diagnosed with ruptured spleen, she avoided other serious injuries as a tree broke her fall to the ground.
The man has been taken to a police station and is being charged with attempted murder. He is currently being questioned.
No official comments on the incident have been available so far.