Siberian teen wounds six in school axe attack

A teenage boy injured six people, five of them minors, in an axe attack in a Siberian classroom on Friday, local authorities said, days after 15 were injured in a knife fight at another Russian school. Investigators said the boy, thought to be 15 or 16, carried out the attack in a class of children aged around 12 or 13 in the city of Ulan-Ude near the Mongolian border.  He also set the classroom on fire with a bottle of fuel, before jumping out of the window.

As a result of his actions, five pupils and a teacher were wounded, the Investigative Committee, which probes major crimes, said in a statement. It has been established that the attacker acted alone.

He was detained and is currently in hospital after he attempted to kill himself, a local representative of the Investigative Committee told TASS news agency.  Doctors in Ulan-Ude told RIA Novosti agency that an 11-year-old girl is in a very serious condition after suffering a head injury and another girl had two fingers amputated.

-AFP, Moscow