The message, the text of which is quoted by TASS, indicates that operatives of the criminal investigation department of the Central District of the city were on the trail of the attacker.
“He turned out to be a 69-year-old resident of the city of Lomonosov, Petrodvortsovo district, who had previously been repeatedly convicted of theft.
He became addicted to crime in his youth and received his first sentence in the 1970s,” the press service said.
According to law enforcement officials, the attacker found out which apartments were often rented by tourists on a daily basis, after which he negotiated with the owners and received the keys.
However, he did not enter the apartments himself - the detainee only made duplicate keys.
This allowed him to subsequently enter apartments already rented by tourists.
Earlier it became known about the arrest in St. Petersburg of gang members from the 1990s who were suspected of two murders.