AN abusive passenger sparked terror on a Russian flight by sexually assaulting a young woman and trying to “strangle” several other females, including a child.

The 47-year-old also punched and kicked male passengers and at one point tried to attack a baby, reports The Sun.
The man strode up and down the cabin randomly lashing out at travellers and then sitting next to them.

He was mainly targeting terrified women, abusing them and making unprovoked attacks, said passengers and police.

The passenger even started to strip in front of shocked travellers.

Eventually the man was overpowered by male passengers and cabin crew members restrained him by strapping him down.

Footage filmed on board the plane shows a fellow passenger striking the man following his midair rampage.

The terrifying ordeal was on an overnight S7 — Siberian Airlines — flight from St Petersburg to Novosibirsk.

Armed police boarded the A320 Airbus to detain the man when the four hour flight S7-3338 landed in Novosibirsk, said Irina Volk, spokeswoman for the Russian Interior Ministry.

He was taken to the holding cell in the airport where he later went berserk banging on his cell, and taking off his shirt.

Passenger Stanislav Semenov said: “A steward offered him a seat at the back but he kept walking up and down, and started attacking passengers randomly and beating them.

“Then he took a seat next to a young woman and began to sexually harass her.

“He grabbed and pulled her hair, then he switched to a young man, saying something to him then punching and striking him with his elbow.

“Then he went and took a seat next to another young man, and a little girl was sitting in the front, so he moved forwards and grabbed her neck.

“At that moment a steward jumped on him and pushed him away, trying to become a new target for him.

“Next he went to the man who was sitting in front of me with a baby in his arms.

“He said to the baby ‘Hi, little s**t’ — then tried to reach the child with his arms.

“Then he switched to me and said he would break my face, so I stood up, took off my glasses, and he attacked and hit me.

“I hit him in return — at this moment other men rushed to us and blocked him, pushing him down on a vacant seat.

“The steward ran up with some belts which we used to tie him until police could deal with him when we landed.”

Another passenger Alexey Mamontov said the man threw punches and kicked other passengers.

“He attacked young women and tried to strangle them, he banged the sides of the cabin and the windows.

“He was walking along the cabin and beating passengers.

“He came up to me and asked if I know him — I said no — so he punched me too.

“A steward tried to push him away, then he punched another man and finally several men joined in and we managed to make force him down on a vacant seat.

“He was particularly abusing women.

“He used abusive words, tried to strangle several young women.”

At one point the man was shouting about “Olympic gold medals”.

It is understood no passengers received medical assistance at the airport.

Ms Volk said: “The police station at the Tolmachevo airport received a message from the airline that several policemen were required to board the plane from St Petersburg to Novosibirsk due to the aggressive behaviour of one passenger.”