Student kills two in Moscow school hostage crisis
4 Feb 2014 6:20 AM IST
A rifle-wielding student killed a teacher and a policeman on Monday in a Moscow school hostage drama that unfolded amid security jitters preceding this week’s Sochi Winter Olympic Games.
Witnesses said the suspect – described as a ‘straight-A’ pupil named Sergei Gordeyev – charged into School No. 263 and ordered a security guard to lead him to a specific classroom in the two-storey building on the northern outskirts of Moscow.
The hostage-taker then shot a 76-year-old geography teacher while roaming the school’s hallways before bolting himself inside a room with about 20 terrified teenaged pupils and their biology instructor. The authorities said the suspect then took 11 shots from two small-calibre rifles at scores of police who had rushed to the scene.
The Russian interior ministry said the hostage-taker was detained during a police raid and that all the students left the building safe and unharmed. ‘They are all alive and well,’ interior ministry spokesman Andrei Pilipchuk told the state-run Vesti-24 news channel. Live footage showed a group of children running from the white-and-pink building and an emergencies ministry police helicopter hovering above the snow-covered school yard.
Russian President Vladimir Putin – his personal and political prestige linked closely to the Games’ success – was informed of the attack while holding a special Kremlin meeting on the arts.
‘We have to raise a new generation of audiences with good cultural tastes, who understand and value theatre, drama and the musical arts,’ said Putin.
Witnesses said the suspect – described as a ‘straight-A’ pupil named Sergei Gordeyev – charged into School No. 263 and ordered a security guard to lead him to a specific classroom in the two-storey building on the northern outskirts of Moscow.
The hostage-taker then shot a 76-year-old geography teacher while roaming the school’s hallways before bolting himself inside a room with about 20 terrified teenaged pupils and their biology instructor. The authorities said the suspect then took 11 shots from two small-calibre rifles at scores of police who had rushed to the scene.
The Russian interior ministry said the hostage-taker was detained during a police raid and that all the students left the building safe and unharmed. ‘They are all alive and well,’ interior ministry spokesman Andrei Pilipchuk told the state-run Vesti-24 news channel. Live footage showed a group of children running from the white-and-pink building and an emergencies ministry police helicopter hovering above the snow-covered school yard.
Russian President Vladimir Putin – his personal and political prestige linked closely to the Games’ success – was informed of the attack while holding a special Kremlin meeting on the arts.
‘We have to raise a new generation of audiences with good cultural tastes, who understand and value theatre, drama and the musical arts,’ said Putin.
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