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Russian Teen Sentenced to 10 Years for School Knife Attack

Igor Khakimov / Interpress / TASS

A teenager has been sentenced to almost a decade behind bars for injuring a teacher and more than a dozen schoolchildren in a stabbing attack in Perm, a Russian city 1,500 kilometers east of Moscow, earlier this year.

Authorities launched a criminal investigation into attempted murder in January when a pair of students went on a stabbing spree at the school, hospitalizing a teacher and around a dozen fourth-graders.

A district court in Perm found the unnamed 17-year-old suspect guilty and sentenced him to 9 years and 8 months in a juvenile correction center, Interfax reported Tuesday.

The underage convict was also ordered compulsory monitoring and psychiatric treatment.

The second defendant is reportedly under a separate investigation and may face institutionalization, according to Interfax.

The stabbing kicked off a year of school attacks that culminated in a deadly shooting at a Crimean college in October and prompted the Kremlin to blame the Internet for anti-social behavior among youth.

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