VLADIVOSTOK, November 20 (RIA Novosti) - Police in Russia's far eastern Primorye district have asked the nation's communications watchdog to block Internet access to a video showing a group of Vladivostok schoolgirls savagely beating up one of their schoolmates, regional police sources told RIA Novosti on Tuesday.
The video, which appeared on social networks on Monday, showed three girls beating up a fourth girl, continuing to assault her even when she was knocked to the ground. Another girl filmed the attack, which also features uncensored swearing.
"The police have contacted the Federal Service for Oversight in Communications, Information Technologies and Mass Communications in the Primorye Region and asked them to delete this content in connection with the law On Protection of Children From Information Harmful to Their Development," a police source said.
Primorye police said previously they were investigating the appearance of the video, and said those involved in the attack were all students at one of Vladivostok's elite schools.
If those involved are under the age of criminal responsibility, the prosecutor will "take measures to send the case to the commission for minors, to protect their rights and decide whether to take suitable action such as special education or to put them in court for placement in a special juvenile center," the prosecutor's office said.
The victim's friends told RIA Novosti she had been beaten by her friends at the end of last week, next to a garage in the Pervoi Rechki district of Vladivostok, and that she knew her attackers.
Russia's presidential representative for children's rights, Pavel Astakhov, said on his Twitter blog the offenders should be firmly punished, regardless of their age.
"A criminal case must be launched. The representative's authorities will make their own independent investigation on the attack on this girl in Primorye," he said.
