Lenin statue collapses on man in ex-Soviet Belarus, kills him

Lenin statue collapses, kills man in Belarus

MINSK, Belarus —A massive statue of Soviet founder Vladimir Lenin collapsed on a man who was hanging from it Monday, killing him on the spot, authorities said.

The 21-year-old man was drunk when he climbed onto the five-meter (16-foot)-high plaster monument and hung from its arm, the Emergency Situations ministry said. It then broke into pieces and he was crushed.

The statue in the southeastern Belarus town of Uvarovichi was built in 1939.

“The monument’s heavy head tumbled on him,” said Nataliya Bolbas, a principal at a school in Uvarovichi facing the monument.

President Alexander Lukashenko is a staunch admirer of the Soviet Union, and the nation still has numerous Soviet-era monuments to the revolutionary leader.