Moscow police have confirmed that a policeman and a teacher were killed as a young man with a rifle took children hostage at a city school. The gunman, who is reportedly a high school student, has been detained, police said.
According to Lifenews, the gunman, “Sergey G.,” was a straight-A student who had a conflict with the school’s 37-year-old geography teacher, Andrey Kirillov.
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| The scene of the shooting. |
"I need the geography teacher," Sergey said, threatening the security guard with a rifle and a hunting gun.
The security guard managed to call the police.
When they arrived, he showed the officers to the classroom, and the high school student opened fire at them, killing an officer and wounding another one, Kommersant newspaper reported.
The gunman took hostage over 20 teenagers aged 15 in the school’s biology classroom, releasing most of them soon afterward, according to police.
Kommersant FM reported that the incident was caused by a conflict between the student and the geography teacher. The student was due to graduate with honors, but reportedly thought that the teacher had tried to interfere with his graduation.
A video that emerged on Youtube showed a helicopter arriving at the scene, and then the kids being evacuated from the building by the teachers. The children weren’t apparently wearing any winter clothes, despite the temperature in the Russian capital standing at -9 degrees Celsius (15 degrees Celsius).
The kids had to stay outside for some more time. Then the parents arrived, and those kids who weren't wearing winter clothes were taken home by the district's cars.
A sixth-grade student who was in the school's building at the time of the incident told Kommersant FM radio that their PE teacher locked them inside the gym during the hostage-taking, and wouldn't let them go until the incident was over.
Lifenews TV channel reported that the phone connection with the school had been lost, and that shocked parents were gathering outside the school.
Police said the gunman was neutralized at around 1pm local Moscow (0900 GMT). Before the detention, the student managed to fire at least 11 times, Russia's Investigative Committee said.
The student's father helped to detain his son, Interfax news agency reported, citing a source in law enforcement agencies. The weapons the student brought belonged to his father and was registered to him, too.
"The student's father participated in the negotiations, along with the security services personnel," the source told Interfax.
The school’s pupils are being questioned by Russian Investigative Committee staff, Kommersant daily reported.
Officers have confiscated their smartphones and other gadgets, as children had started posting information about the incident and the questioning online, the newspaper said.
Investigative Committee spokesperson Vladimir Markin told journalists that the detainee will be charged with homicide, hostage-taking and endangering the life of a law enforcement officer.
According to Article 317 of the Russian Criminal Code, endangering the life of a law enforcement officer is punishable by 12 to 20 years in prison.
Article 20 of the Code defines the age of 14 as the age of discretion for felonious homicide.
All Russian schools have an armed security guard, according to a law passed in the wake of the 2004 terrorist attack on a school Beslan, North Ossetia.
RT.