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4 Injured in Knife Attack at Russian School

Donat Sorokin / TASS

A Russian teenager stabbed a teacher and his classmate, set a classroom on fire and caused mass panic at a public school in southern Russia on Wednesday.

A spate of deadly school shootings and stabbings has hit Russia over the past year. The Kremlin suggested in January that the “evils” of the Internet may have played a role in the attacks.

A 17-year-old student stabbed a computer science teacher and a female classmate in the town of Sterlitamak, investigators said Wednesday.“

Then he spilled a flammable substance and committed arson. He wounded himself with a knife,” the Investigative Committee said in a statement.  

The fourth victim was another female classmate who jumped out of the school’s second-floor window, it added.

Investigators have opened a criminal case against the teenager for attempted murder as well as a negligence case against officials tasked with preventing underage crime.

According to a statement by the investigative committee, the officials had received warnings about the students’ “aggressive behavior” before the attack.

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