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Krasnoyarsk Police Arrest Teenager Who Set Fire to School Classroom and Attacked Students

School No. 153 in Krasnoyarsk. Social media

A 14-year-old girl was arrested in the Krasnoyarsk region on Wednesday after she set fire to a school classroom and assaulted students with a hammer, marking the second attack at a school in the Siberian region in just as many days.

Krasnoyarsk police said the teenager threw a “burning rag” into a classroom full of students, then struck several of them with an “object resembling a hammer.”

Five children sustained traumatic brain injuries and burns, while one adult, identified as a teacher at School No. 153, suffered from smoke inhalation, the local media NGS24.RU reported, citing an anonymous source.

NGS24.RU published an image of one student’s back covered with burns, as well as a photo of the classroom where the incident occurred.

The Investigative Committee, Russia’s top investigative body, launched a criminal probe into the attack and said it would review security protocols at the school.

“The actions of the school staff must be assessed, and the issue of bullying must not be overlooked,” Krasnoyarsk Mayor Sergei Vereshchagin said.

On Tuesday, Krasnoyarsk police arrested a seventh-grade student in the town of Kodinsk after she allegedly stabbed a classmate at School No. 4 and tried to attack a teacher.

Russia has recorded a number of attacks at schools over the past year. There have been at least six school stabbings across the country since the start of the winter.

In December, a 10-year-old Tajik boy at a school outside Moscow was fatally stabbed by a ninth-grader in what is widely believed to have been a race-motivated attack.

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