Cross section of the reaction

Using 3.07 pb of data collected in the energy range 0.60–0.97 GeV by CMD-2, about 150 events of the process ee → ππππ have been selected. The energy dependence of the cross section agrees with the assumption of the a1(1260)π intermediate state which is dominant above 1 GeV. For the first time ππππ events are observed at the ρ meson energy. Under the assumption that all these events come from the ρ meson decay, the value of the cross section at the ρ meson peak corresponds to the following decay width: Γ(ρ → ππππ) = (2.8 ± 1.4± 0.5) keV or to the branching ratio B(ρ → ππππ) = (1.8 ± 0.9± 0.3) · 10.