Teenagers confess to killing 21 people for fun in Ukraine

Moscow, Apr 16 (UNI) Three young people in Ukraine have been charged with murdering 21 people allegedly using hammers in a killing spree that lasted a month.

The string of violent murders shocked the eastern city of Dnepropetrovsk in 2007. The teenagers, all former classmates, allegedly battered their victims with hammers and pipes, media reports said here.

Rumours of a maniac killing of both young and old paralysed Dnepropetrovsk, one of the largest cities in Ukraine.

The police, however, linked the reign of terror to a group of teenagers. With mobile phone footage of some of the murders, police officers have little doubt of the identity of the criminals, they said.

They said mobile phone footage also suggested they practised the murder on cats first. ''We think they were doing it as a hobby, to have a collection of memories when they get old,'' Russian Vesti TV news channel quoted police detective Bogdan Vlasenko as saying.

The teenagers come from prosperous families and have allegedly admitted they committed the crimes just for fun. The former classmates have been behind bars for about a year now, allegedly pleading guilty to all the murders.

Police said the killers were not targeting anyone in particular, adding they just picked up people who looked like they would not fight back.

''You see, no one would fear for their life when these boys were offering them a ride,'' Chief Police Officer of the Dnepropetrovsk region Ivan Stypak said.

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