A concrete obelisk with Soviet stars at the top that was the center piece of a monument commemorating the Red Army's victory over Nazi Germany has been toppled in the Latvian capital.
Shortly before the obelisk went down on Thursday, heavy duty machinery was spotted behind a green privacy screen fence at the foot of the spire.
The diggers chipped away at the base of the nearly 80-meter (260-foot) tall obelisk until it fell over and crashed into the pond that surrounded it in Victory Park.
Scores of people, some with Latvian flags wrapped around their shoulders, cheered and applauded as the edifice came down.It was the latest in a series of Soviet monuments brought down after Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
