MOSCOW, September 5. /TASS/. Police have detained a teenage student who threw smoke bombs and opened fire in a school in the Moscow region, wounding four people, the Interior Ministry’s main department told TASS on Tuesday.
"According to preliminary information, today in one of the schools in the Ivanteyevka township, in the Moscow region, a student, born in 2002, threw smoke bombs into a classroom and opened fire from an air gun. Four people have been hospitalized," the spokesman stated.
A law enforcement source said three children and a female teacher were among those wounded.
According to the prosecutor’s press office, the 15-year-old ninth-grader attacked the teacher with a kitchen axe during his computer science class, hitting her in the head. "Then the teenager started blowing up homemade firecrackers and opened fire from an air gun."
Another law enforcement source said the teenager came up to the third floor, and threw several smoke bombs into the corridor. "Loud bangs were heard, and smoke started coming from the building. He then entered the classroom and started firing," the source said. The teenager opened fire at a female teacher from an air gun, which he had reportedly taken from his father. Three children jumped from the window and were injured.
The attacker has been taken to a local police station and officers are interrogating him. "All circumstances of the incident are being investigated," police said. According to one of the theories, the incident occurred after a conflict between the student and a female teacher or his classmates. The teacher has been also taken to the police station for questioning.
Police evacuated children and cordoned off the school. "People in masks took all children from the school," the spokesman said.
The school’s building has been closed. "Children have been sent home. The school won’t be operating today. Classes will resume tomorrow," the administration said. Investigators are working at the scene of the crime.
A police source said the student had been preparing for the attack for a long time. He posted photos with weapons on his social network account and also web links related to the orders of axes, and wrote: "delete my life" with the date of September 5. In April, the teenager posted comments on the 1999 Columbine High School massacre in Colorado, saying that this incident gave him have tragic and suicidal thoughts.