Russian Teen Gets Lengthy Prison Term For School Stabbing Attack

A Russian teenager has been sentenced to seven years in prison after being convicted over a knife attack at his school that left 12 people hospitalized with stab wounds.

The sentence was announced on April 29 by the Motovilikha District Court in Perm, 1,150 kilometers northeast of Moscow, that found the 17-year-old defendant guilty of the attempted murder of 30 people.

Authorities said the boy and another teenager, a former student of the same school in Perm, entered the building carrying knives and injured 15 people. The incident took place in the morning on January 15, 2018.

The former student, who was 17 years old at the time, was sentenced to nine years and eight months in prison after being found guilty of the attempted murder of 30 people and of damaging school property.

Authorities said the two were tried separately because the second suspect was initially found mentally unfit to face trial and sent to a psychiatric hospital for assessment. The names of the defendants have not been disclosed because they are minors.

There have been several attacks on schools in Russia this year, as well as a gun-and-bomb attack on a college in Russian-controlled Crimea in which authorities say an 18-year-old killed 20 other people on October 18 before fatally shooting himself.