Four Indian medical students recovering after Russia attack
Four Indian medical students injured in a stabbing attack at a Russian university in Ufa are stable and recovering well, the Indian mission said. Consular officials visited them as authorities launched an inquiry and tightened security at educational institutions
Moscow: Four Indian medical students, who were injured in a stabbing spree by a juvenile in a Russian university, are “stable and recovering well,” the Indian mission said here on Sunday.
These four Indians were among at least six people injured in the stabbing attack on Saturday at the State Medical University in Ufa, about 1,200 km east of the Russian capital, in Bashkortostan Republic.
Indian consular officials from Kazan on Sunday visited the four students at the hospital where they were taken after the stabbing incident.
“They are stable and recovering well. Our consular officer met them today in the hospital and also met other students in the hostel,” the Indian mission here said. “We are in regular touch with them.”
The attacker, a 15-year-old student of Class IX of a local school, armed with a knife, entered the medical university dormitory on Repina Street in Ufa and attacked the students living there.
Resisting arrest, the attacker also wounded two police officers and the hostel guard. The teenage attacker later tried to commit suicide by inflicting bodily harm on himself and is admitted to a hospital in serious condition, the official news agency of Bashkortostan, Bashinform, reported.
The Prosecutor’s Office of the Republic of Bashkortostan and the local branch of the Federal Investigative Committee have opened a case of gross dereliction of duty against officials of the educational institution, as well as agencies of the system for the prevention of juvenile delinquency, according to the news service.
“They had information about the presence of signs of deviant behaviour of the 15-year-old attacker and his being in a socially dangerous situation, but failed to take sufficient measures to conduct preventive and social-pedagogical work with him,” Bashinform said.
Meanwhile, Head of the Bashkortostan Republic Radiy Khabirov has taken strict steps to tighten the security of educational institutions.
He has taken personal control over the treatment of Indian students and was in touch with the Indian Embassy and relatives of the victims, officials said.
On Saturday, the Baza channel claimed that the attacker belonged to a banned neo-Nazi outfit.
“He belonged to the banned NS/WP neo-Nazi organisation. During the frenzy of attack, he was shouting nationalist slogans about the Holocaust,” it said and shared a photo of a swastika drawn on a wall with the blood of the victims.