CHISINAU -- Two security forces members were killed when a man opened fire at Chisinau International Airport in Moldova after he was denied entry into the small southeastern European nation, authorities said on June 30.
Officials said the suspect, identified as a 43-year-old citizen of Tajikistan, was injured by security forces and arrested following a short standoff in which hostages were briefly taken.
The airport was evacuated and all flights were delayed at Moldova’s main airport.
“A 43-year-old citizen of Tajikistan was banned from entering Moldova for security reasons,” Prime Minister Dorin Recean said in a Facebook post. “While accompanying him to the transit area to be [put on a return flight] he shot dead a border guard and an airport security employee with a gun stolen from a border police employee.”
Recean said a passenger was also injured in the incident and is receiving medical treatment.
President Maia Sandu said that "state institutions are on heightened alert, police and law-enforcement bodies are mobilized throughout Moldova."
Moldova’s Internal Affairs Ministry said the two security personnel “lost their lives while performing their duties.”
Tensions have risen in pro-West Moldova following Russia’s invasion of neighboring Ukraine, with fears that Moscow could expand the war to Moldova, where up to 1,500 Russian troops are based in the breakaway pro-Moscow Transdniester region.
The Moldovan government has been critical of Russian aggression in Ukraine, with Sandu saying in May 2022 that Crimea, the Donbas, and Kyiv are all part of Ukraine.
Moldovan security forces have sought to block potential Russian fighters from arriving in the country, although there was no immediate indication of the suspect’s intentions in traveling to Moldova. Media reports said the suspect arrived on a flight from Turkey.