MOSCOW, September 17 (RAPSI) – A criminal case was opened by investigators after a mass grave of Soviet citizens murdered during the World War II had been discovered in the Leningrad Region, the regional Investigative Committee directorate informs RAPSI on Thursday.

Remains of 134 persons, among them women and children, were unearthed. According to archive records, in the summer of 1941 German blitz was stopped at the Luga defense line; the territory, where the mass grave was found, was a rear area of German 18th Army besieging Leningrad.

Investigators believe the buried people could be prisoners of war held in transit and screening camp Dulag-320, where Germans executed en masse Soviet officers, commissars, rank and file Communists, and Soviet officials.