Russian police kill teenager who stabbed officer in Tatarstan

Boy, 16, fatally shot after stabbing officer three times, authorities say.

Russia is one of several countries that has expressed solidarity with France after an attack in Nice [Evgenia Novozhenina/Reuters]

A policeman in Russia’s central Tatarstan region fatally shot a teenage boy who had attacked a fellow officer with a knife.

The incident on Friday was being considered an attempted “terrorist” attack, authorities said.

After the policemen reached the 16-year-old, he began to threaten them with a knife, according to Russia’s TASS news agency.

“The young man did not react to repeated demands to stop the unlawful acts. He actively resisted arrest, causing several knife wounds to one of the policemen,” the region’s interior ministry said in a statement.

It was not immediately clear what the teenager’s motive for such an attack was.

He stabbed the officer at least three times during the night-time attack in the town of Kukmor, Russia’s top investigative agency said in a statement.

“The other policeman, after warning shots, was forced to shoot to kill. As a result of the injuries, the attacker died before the arrival of medical personnel,” the Investigative Committee said.

The Russian news agency Interfax reported that the boy had been attempting to set fire to a police station before the officers intervened.

The policeman is recovering in hospital.

The attack comes one day after a man stabbed three people to death in Nice, France, in what authorities are treating as a “terrorism” incident.

Russian President Vladimir Putin was among many world leaders who expressed condolences to his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron.

Source: Al Jazeera and news agencies