Russian authorities said yesterday they have detained a man suspected of shooting dead nine people in a drunken dispute in in Tver oblast, some 110 kilometers northwest of Dushanbe.

Investigators said on June 4 that the alleged assailant gunned down five men and four women after a drinking session turned violent during the night of June 3 at a cottage in Redkino, 110 kilometers northwest of Moscow, according to Russian media reports.

“During the get-together there was a domestic dispute between the guests, after which the suspect left and then returned with a hunting rifle,” the Investigative Committee said in a statement.

It said the suspect, a resident of Moscow, 45, had been “drinking spirits.”