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Scrap metal collectors cut out 3.5 meters of the pipeline supplying drinking water to the Primorye city of Nakhodka, leaving some 10,000 residents tap-dry on Sunday.

The water pipeline runs underground but in a few places due to the complexity of the surface it rises above the ground.

“The thieves cut the aboveground part of the pipeline to submit it to scrap metal dealers for profit,” deputy head of Nakhodka”s department for communal services Sergei Matskovsky said.
The pipe cut left some 10,000 people without water in the residential areas of Livadia and Yuzhno-Morskaya, the statement from Nakhodka’s city administration reported.

The municipal services crews worked 10 hours to fix the damaged pipeline and to resume the flow of running water to the residents.

Police managed to detain the thieves and launched an investigation into the case.