27.07 Mayor of Ukrainian Port Wounded, Robbed, Hospitalized � Reports

MOSCOW, July 27 (RIA Novosti) � The mayor of Feodosiya, a Black Sea port on Ukraine�s Crimean Peninsula, was hospitalized Saturday after an unidentified assailant shot and robbed him, police and neighbors told Ukrainian media.

The assailant used a shotgun to shoot Oleksandr Bartenev in the back, but the mayor fought back and wrestled with the attacker, who then managed to run away with his handbag, Crimean police chief Mikhailo Slepanyov told the UNIAN news agency.

The 57-year-old mayor is in an intensive care unit, but the wound is not lethal, Slepanyov told UNIAN. Police found the shotgun and mayor�s purse with all the cash missing, he told the agency.

Bartenev�s neighbor told Segodnya.ua news website that they woke up after a �loud bang� and then saw the mayor bleeding on the stairway.

A former military engineer and businessman, Bartenev was elected the mayor of Feodosiya in 2008. The Black Sea port of 70,000 is a popular resort that attracts tens of thousands of tourists every year.

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