Teenage girl detained in St. Petersburg on suspicion of setting two police cars on fire

Source: Fontanka.ru

In St. Petersburg, police have detained a teenage girl on suspicion of setting fire to police cars outside a station on Marata Street, a source told the news outlet Fontanka.

The cars caught fire on September 20. A retiree was initially suspected of the arson, according to Fontanka. Surveillance cameras recorded the incident. The footage shows a woman in white coveralls walking up to the cars, dousing them with something, setting them on fire, and running away.

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According to Fontanka, the suspect is 15; other outlets and Telegram channels say she is 14. The teenager may have been manipulated by scammers. Fontanka’s source said she was caught during a second arson attempt, this time targeting Vyborgsky district traffic police vehicles.

The girl was taken in for questioning. A criminal case has been opened, though authorities did not specify the charge.

As of May 2026, at least 240 teenagers in Russia had been detained on charges related to terrorist attacks or sabotage since the start of the war, by Mediazona’s count.

In most of those cases — 205 of them — their actions were attributed to a desire to make easy money on the side. Six teenagers were manipulated by scammers into setting fires, and five said they opposed the war. In the remaining cases, the motive was unclear.

Mediazona noted that teenagers find arson-for-hire offers online. Such offers are often linked to scams, while Ukrainian and Russian security services also post them.

At Meduza, we are committed to transparency about our use of artificial intelligence in the newsroom. The story you’re reading was written by one of our living, breathing journalists and translated from Russian using an AI model configured to follow our strict editorial standards. This translation process is the result of extensive testing and refinements to ensure our English-language coverage is timely and accurate. A Meduza editor reviews every draft before publication.

If you find any errors in this translation, please contact us at reports@meduza.io.

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Teenage girl detained in St. Petersburg on suspicion of setting two police cars on fire

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