Police officers were successful in releasing students held hostage at a school in Moscow by a gunman, Monday, Russian media reports. The gunman killed a police officer and a teacher, one person was injured, officials said. He did not make any demands, according to the police.
The gunman, who is identified as a student at the school, entered with a rifle and threatened the security guard. He took tenth graders as hostage, reported Reuters. The students, aged around 15, were attending a biology class.
The school officials evacuated the students from the other classes. Police said they were able to neutralize the student and take away his gun. He is in police custody. "The person who took 20 people and a teacher hostage is a student in the upper classes at the same school," interior ministry spokesman Andrei Pilipchuk, said on state TV, reported BBC. "He has been neutralised and all the students have been freed," he said.
The incident comes just days before Russia flags off the 2014 Winter Olympics, February 7, in Sochi.
Schools in Russia have been under tight security after the 2004 Belsan school hostage crisis. Over 1,100 people, including 777 students were held hostage for three days. The hostage-takers were identified as the Riyadus-Salikhin Battalion. They were sent by the Chechen separatist warlord Shamil Basayev, who demanded recognition for Chechnya as an independent state at the UN and Russia's withdrawal from Chechnya.
The incident ended the third day after the Russian security forces entered the building with the help of tanks, incendiary rockets and other weapons. According to the officials, at least 334 hostages were killed, which included 186 children.
