On 11 August 2011, around 15:04 an armed person entered the building of the Ministry of Defence. He was armed with a
pistol and explosive devices, threatened and fired towards armed guards of the Ministry of Defence (MoD).

The MoD security team immediately informed the police. The police Special Forces started an operation to apprehend the
offender. Incident lasted for about 2,5 hours and the man was killed during the operation.

Although the building was evacuated in less than 20 minutes according to pre-prepared and drilled evacuation plans, a few persons blocked between the intruder and evacuation corridor on the ground floor left through the windows. The critical functions of the MoD were continued undisrupted. No hostages were taken although two people in the MoD were briefly in the hands of the offender. No officials of the MoD were injured during the incident and the Ministry continued its regular work on the next morning.

During the incident, the offender was contained in administrative area on the ground floor and got no access to the MoD security area. No classified information or any material related to it was compromised. The offender was an Estonian citizen who was not associated with the Defence Forces or the Ministry of Defence, as speculated by some media outlets earlier. Offender’s motives are not known at this point and will be investigated by the Estonian Security Police and the prosecutor’s Office. He was a member of a marginal left-wing United Left Party and had contacts with a group of Russian extremists behind the April riots in Tallinn in 2007.

As a result of the incident, a lessons learned process has been initiated and physical security measures in the Ministry have been further strengthened.