Students not immediately informed about shooting incident to avoid panic - school student
MOSCOW. Feb 3 (Interfax) - The students at the school where a high school student took hostages were not told about the incident straight away in order to not to cause panic, one of the students of the school told reporters
"After the incident happened, an administration member came to our classroom, told us to pack our things and sit quietly. That one student took hostages and went on a shooting spree, we were told about it already after being removed from the school so as not to cause panic," a Grade 8 student said.
The children were staying inside the school for 20 minutes before being removed in groups to a local authorities' building, she said. There the students were given warm tea and told what happened; also, children's psychologists were on site to provide help.
The teacher, who was shot by the suspect, had no obvious conflicts with anyone and parents cannot say anything bad about him, the mother of one student told reporters.
The school is still surrounded by large crowds, including worried parents looking for their children, an Interfax correspondent said.