MOSCOW, February 15 (RIA Novosti) – Two teenagers have been arrested for allegedly stealing snacks and sodas from a Moscow café at gunpoint, police said Friday.
The accused robbers took five fried meat pastries, known as chebureks, four bottles of cola and 160 rubles ($4.50) after threatening staff with air guns at the café in southeast Moscow.
The boys, aged 16 and 17, were caught by police after a two-hour chase and now face up to a decade in jail if convicted of armed robbery.
In comments on the incident, Russian deputy prime minister Dmitry Rogozin, said air guns and rubber-bullet guns, known as traumatic, should be redesigned by color to prevent them being mistaken for service weapons.
“Otherwise, a police or army officer could respond to the pointed air gun or traumatic gun by using his service weapon,” said Rogozin, who is in charge of the defense industry, in a statement on Facebook.
Rogozin also called for a ban on so-called traumatic guns across the country, amid a rise in fatal cases involving these weapons.
