‘I feared attack’: student on Krasnoyarsk arson
The Pokrovsky Complex school in Krasnoyarsk where the arson attack occurred.
On February 4, an eighth-grade girl attacked students and a teacher at the Pokrovsky Complex school in Krasnoyarsk. She threw a burning rag into a classroom and tried to hit fleeing students with a hammer. Several children and a teacher were injured, one child in serious condition. The attacker was detained.
NGS24.RU correspondent spoke with a student who was in the adjacent classroom at the time of the attack. He is in the same grade as the attacker.
What is known about the girl
According to the interlocutor, Lena (name changed — Ed.) stopped communicating with classmates almost a year ago. An acquaintance of his from a parallel class said the girl was bullied. Among the students, there are rumors that she stopped attending lessons a few days before the attack.
After the incident, someone unknown posted photos in school chats — showing a phone screen with correspondence from Lena’s class. It is visible that from her account (now deleted — Ed.) a sticker with the inscription «Burn alive» and an anonymous poll «Who would you like to eliminate?» with options «History teacher» and «Chemistry teacher» were sent.
«She would have come to our lesson»
Our interlocutor sat in a classroom adjacent to the one where the rag with flammable mixture was thrown.
«I was actually lucky, really. If it had happened a lesson earlier, if she had mixed up the schedule somehow, she would have come right into our lesson,» the teenager tells the NGS24.RU correspondent.
After news of the 2021 attack on a school in Kazan, the boy feared that something similar could happen to him.
«I had a phobia, back when I was in the fifth grade. When that guy in Kazan came and shot. I had a real phobia that they would attack us too. And I was sitting in the adjacent classroom [to where the girl threw the burning rag at the students]. It was very scary, really. But at first, I thought it was a drill,» the boy describes the events.
How the evacuation proceeded
When the alarm sounded, a stampede began. The student recalls that he was lucky to get out quickly.
«There was a crush, very strong. I got thrown out. I was lucky, I’d even say. I didn’t stand there for an hour and a half. Someone pushed me and I somehow quickly walked through an empty space. There was an empty spot. I don’t know how it happened. I got to the turnstile immediately. Many were panicking. Everyone thought it was just a fire. But when they saw it, they started panicking that it was a big fire.»
At first, the students were even happy — they thought classes would be cancelled due to the fire.
«Everyone was happy that we wouldn’t go to school tomorrow. But when they realized it was an attack — of course, no one was happy anymore,» he says.
However, despite the fear after the Kazan tragedy, this time the interlocutor did not panic — classmates kept joking about everything until the end.
«No one could even imagine that an attack would happen. Things had been pretty good lately,» the interlocutor summarizes.
What was known by the end of the day
The attacker was detained. Three children with burns are in the burn center, another two with injuries are in the hospital. A teacher was also injured.
Investigators opened three criminal cases: attempted murder, negligence by prevention authorities, and unsafe security services.
It turned out that the school had already received a warning from the regional education ministry — for ignoring bullying. In December, a video appeared showing a second-grader beating a peer while a teacher calmly watched from the side.
Governor Mikhail Kotyukov ordered that conversations be held with teachers and children in all schools in the region, and also to check how preventive work with students is being conducted.
