Senior Warrant Officer Gagik Mkrtchyan, wounded on July 17 during the standoff with the armed opposition Sasna Dzrer group, died today in a Yerevan hospital.

Mkrtchyan is the third police officer to have died as a result of the two-week standoff.

Colonel Artur Vanoyan was killed on July 17, when the gunmen attacked and seized in Erebouni police building on July 17.

Yuri Tepanosian, shot on July 30 sitting in a police car some 400 meters from the seized building, was the third police fatality.

The armed group denies shooting Tepanosian, arguing that the police car was not visible from the building.