Ex-Alpha Officer Shares How to Survive School Attacks
Educational institutions are increasingly becoming targets for criminals. In the past five years, there have been about 24 such attacks. The latest occurred in mid-December 2025: a 15-year-old teenager with a knife and pepper spray broke into a school in the Moscow region and killed a fourth-grader. As in many other cases, teachers and students did not immediately realize that the school was under attack — some panicked.
How to behave in an extreme situation was explained by FSB Lieutenant Colonel, former member of the «Alpha» unit (Directorate «A»), Alexei Filatov.
«It»s Important to Get Out of the Perimeter«
According to Alexei Filatov, first of all, one should try to control emotions and recall the building«s layout.
«Most often, attacks target places with large crowds, educational institutions. As a student, teacher, or audience member in a concert hall, you should before visiting understand how the facility is geographically arranged: where the emergency exits are and where to run in case of an emergency. Under no circumstances should you run towards the criminal; on the contrary — you should get out of that perimeter,» Alexei Filatov explained to MSK1.RU.
In case of shooting, the former «Alpha» employee advises running in erratic zigzags to reduce the risk of gunshot wounds.
«First, for example, take three steps to the left, then — two to the right. To create an effect of an irregular pendulum, so that the shooter»s aim on the sight constantly moves from one side to the other. In an extreme situation, if a person dodges skillfully and moves quickly, even from ten meters it«s not easy to hit them. While the shooter aims, presses the trigger, the dodging person has time to take a step, and the bullet will fly past,» the expert told MSK1.RU.
«I do not recommend, for example, jumping from the fifth floor to escape from a student who threatens to stab. Because the probability of surviving in such a case is minimal. Comparing these problems, it»s better to try to disarm the attacker together, two or three people. If he, of course, is not coming with a firearm. Although even in such a hopeless situation, one can act: for example, put some part of the body and try to neutralize the criminal,« the expert stated.
Recall that the massacre at a school in the Moscow region occurred on 17 December. As a result of the emergency, a 12-year-old child died, and several more people were injured. The attacker recorded everything on video. Shortly before the tragedy, he sent classmates an 11-page document with calls for violence.
On the same day, the teenager was detained, and in the investigative department he pleaded guilty. A criminal case was initiated regarding the incident. The day after the massacre, the attacker was arrested. Everything known about the tragedy was covered in a separate story.
You can watch a full interview with the former employee of Directorate «A» in a separate article.
