A teacher in northern Russia could face up to three years in prison after being captured on a mobile phone camera beating a student in front of his classmates, a law-enforcement official said. A shaky video taken by one of Tolya Ivanov's classmates shows his teacher holding him up against the blackboard striking him on the head repeatedly and throwing him across the room.

After several days in hospital, the 11-year-old student told the Rossiya television network on Friday that he was afraid to return to his school in the northern town of Olenegorsk. "I have a bruise here from when she hit me against the blackboard," he told the station, pointing to his left arm. He said the school's reaction to the beating was to approach the student who took the video to ask him to delete it. An investigation has been opened into the incident with the teacher facing up to three years in prison if found guilty, prosecutor Yelena Smirnova told the television.