Stun Grenade Injures 4 in Russian School After Counter-Terrorism Exercise Goes Wrong

A stun grenade triggered an unfortunate accident at School No. 21 in Serkovo, a village in the Moscow region, on Tuesday. Four educators were injured by the blast, which occurred during nationwide anti-terrorism training exercises. According to Russian media reports, the grenade was thrown through a window, landing on a table and subsequently exploding.

The injury inflicted on the four teachers included eye injuries and abrasions, with three of them subsequently hospitalized and later released. Russian outlets Baza and Astra cited various reports to detail the incident, while one kindergarten in the area revealed that the exercises include scenarios such as hostage taking and armed attacks using flammable liquids.

The explosions of such training drills have expanded to numerous Russian schools, kindergartens, colleges, and children’s camps by 2025. Despite the rarity of school shootings in Russia compared to the US, the last known incident occurred in May 2026, when a teenager injured two students with an air pistol in Krasnodar Krai. The last major terrorist attack on a Russian school took place in March 2024, when the Islamic State (IS) conducted a shooting in Moscow’s Crocus concert hall, claiming over 100 lives.

The incident was falsely blamed on Kyiv by Moscow, despite IS officially claiming responsibility. The most notorious school-related terrorist attack in Russia, known as the Beslan school siege, occurred on September 1, 2004, in the Caucasus Mountains’ Ossetian Republic, resulting in the deaths of 334 people, including 186 children and 31 attackers, making it the deadliest school shooting in history.