Youths post teacher beating on internet

Russian authorities are investigating a beating by some school children on an elderly teacher during physical education lessons.

Valentina Leonidova, 73, apparently suffers from sclerosis and said she could not remember the attacks. One section of the video sees Ms Leonidova being pushed and kicked by the students.

The amateur footage was made available by the local education authority in the eastern Siberian town of Shelekhov.

Olga Skrokhodova, head of Shelekhov District Education and Youth Department, said: "A lack of control meant just half of all children attended physical education classes.

"This is where the impunity (among students) at this school comes from."

Parents have refused access to any of the students involved in the beatings.