Explosion in Almaty college kills one, injures 12

    By Dinara Urazova
    A ‘grenade’ explosion in an Almaty college has killed one student and injured 12 others on November 17, Tengrinews reports, citing STV.
    The explosion occurred on the second floor of the College of Fashion and Design on Rayimbek Avenue at around 8:40 a.m. during ‘a basic military training class’.
    A female student was killed, and 12 other students were injured.
    According to the Department of Health, the teacher was not among those injured.
    According to some of the college students and unconfirmed reports, the teacher was not in class when the explosion occurred. The TV news reported that he was taken away for questioning by the police.
    Svetlana Yakovleva, the girl who died in the explosion, was 16 years old, her brother Aleksey told a Tengrinews reporter.
    She was a kind and goal-oriented person, and a straight A student, he said. "She liked to study. My sister was a cheerful and kind person, and had big plans for the future," Svatlana's brother said.
    He said that the basic military training teacher was new to teaching - he had been teaching in the college since the beginning of the academic year, but had never taught in any other school before.
    One of the students of the college confirmed that the grenade explosion happened during the second morning class and all the students were evacuated immediately after.
    One witness said, "The teacher wasn't there at that moment, he walked out. Sveta, that girl, died on the spot, two of my best friends are in intensive care in grave condition. One of them has a perforating shrapnel wound in the head. That girl (Svetlana) didn't do it. She was just holding the grenade in her hand when a guy sitting next to her yanked the pin out. How could a real grenade possibly have gotten into class?!"
    Another student said, "I was in a classroom next door. I walked out of my classroom because it was a break, and then the explosion suddenly came. A girl ran out of that classroom screaming and fell onto the floor fight in front of me. Two girls that were walking past that classroom also got injured. One had blood on her arm. It was horrible."
    The area has been cordoned off by the police, all the classes have been cancelled and the students evacuated.
    Almaty Akim Akhmetzhan Yessimov visited the site. He instructed the city authorities to provide financial aid to the family of the girl who was killed in the explosion and all the other student who sustained injuries.
    His deputy Yuri Ilyin said the akim extended his condolences to the relatives of the deceased girl. The Akim ordered a special commission to be established to investigate the incident.
    The Prosecutor’s Office, the Military Prosecutor’s Office and the Department of Internal Affairs will all be involved in the investigation. In particular, it will be up to the commission to find out why a real grenade was being used in class instead of a training model, according to Tengrinews.kz.