Bus passenger is stabbed to death in Russia after berating a couple for not wearing Covid masks
- Andrey Khabursky, 53, was killed getting off a bus in St Petersburg, Russia
- He argued with welder Alexey Verbitsky, 40, who was not wearing a face mask
- Verbitsky allegedly stabbed him in the back and has been taken into custody
A bus passenger was stabbed to death moments after berating a couple over their failure to wear coronavirus face masks.
CCTV footage shows Andrey Khabursky, 53, getting up from his seat to criticise the couple, which sparked an argument.
Unmasked man Alexey Verbitsky, 40, who friends say is a Covid-denier, allegedly swore at Khabursky, the deputy director of a research certification centre in St Petersburg, Russia.
The unnamed girlfriend sought to diffuse the row.
Andrey Khabursky (left), 53, was allegedly stabbed to death by Alexey Verbitsky (right), 40, after an argument broke out between them on the bus in St Petersburg
Khaburskiy (left) punches Verbitskiy (right) after a row broke out about wearing coronavirus face masks
At this point, as the scheduled minibus service halts at a stop, Khabursky – who was returning home from a work celebration – struck the other man in the face then made for the door.
The video shows how Verbitsky jumps across his girlfriend to follow Khabursky off the vehicle.
It is alleged that Verbitsky then stabbed him once in the back. Khabursky collapsed on the pavement.
Separate footage shows the knifeman desperately seeking to revive him. Soon afterwards paramedics found that he had died at the scene.
Verbitsky attempts to revive Khabursky on the pavement after allegedly stabbing him once in the back after he got off the bus
Khabursky’s widow Olga (pictured) told Komsomolskaya Pravda: ‘He was my husband. It is very hard for me to speak. It is very hard for all of us’
Verbitsky, a welder, was detained and a murder case has been opened, according to law enforcement.
The dead man’s widow told Komsomolskaya Pravda: ‘He was my husband. It is very hard for me to speak. It is very hard for all of us.’
The couple’s daughter said she could not believe the circumstances of her father’s death.
Verbitsky (pictured), a welder, was detained and a murder case has been opened, according to law enforcement
She said: ‘He was killed for a remark on the bus. For the fact that he just made a remark.
‘And then he was attacked because of this. He was coming home from a corporate party – but he was killed.
‘I’d rather not talk about that. You know, I can’t comment on the observance of the mask regime now.
‘I myself just do not understand how it happened.’
A friend of Verbitsky said he was a normally ‘calm’ man, an athlete. He probably carried a knife for self-defence, he said.
‘I called him at the weekend, and everything was fine with him,’ he said.
‘He doesn’t believe in COVID. He is an ordinary athlete.
‘Damn, to suffer so much because of a mask?
‘What an absurdity, such nonsense. Why does this happen to people? What awaits him now? Horror.’
St Petersburg – home city of Vladimir Putin – has Russia’s highest rate of Covid-19 mortality, with 90 per 100,000 people.
Today it recorded a daily toll of 63 deaths.
Major hospitals like the Mariinskaya reportedly had no spare beds.