Russian school shooting: At least 15 dead after gunman opens fire at Izhevsk school

A gunman emblazoned with a Nazi Swastika opened fire on a classroom full of Russian children in a Columbine-inspired school shooting. Warning: Graphic images.

At least 15 people, including 11 children, were killed in a mass school shooting in central Russia on Monday local time.

Another 24 people were injured in the attack; the latest in a series of school shootings that have shaken Russia in recent years.

It came with the country on edge over efforts to mobilise tens of thousands of men to fight in Ukraine.

The Kremlin said that the shooter “apparently belongs to a Neo-Fascist group”, with investigators saying he wore “a black top with Nazi symbols and a balaclava”.

He was later identified as a local man Artem Kazantsev, born in 1988, who graduated from the school.

Footage released by the Investigative Committee of Russia shows the body of a gunman in school No88 in Izhevsk. Picture: AFP

Investigators have said two security guards and two teachers were among the victims, while the attacker “committed suicide”.

Investigators said they were searching his home and probing his “adherence to Neo-Fascist views and Nazi ideology”.

“Currently investigators … are conducting a search of his residence and studying the personality of the attacker, his views and surrounding milieu,” Russia’s Investigative Committee said in a statement. “Checks are being made into his adherence to Neo-Fascist views and Nazi ideology.”

The Investigative Committee of Russia shows investigators working by the body of a gunman in school No88 in Izhevsk. Picture: AFP

Video released by investigators showed the man’s body lying in a classroom, surrounded by papers and overturned furniture strewn across the dishevelled room.

The man, wearing black with a red swastika on his T-shirt, lay on the bloodstained floor.

Brechalov declared a period of mourning in the region to last until Thursday. A city of around 630,000 people, Izhevsk is the regional capital of Russia’s Udmurt Republic, located around 1,000 kilometres east of Moscow.

Alexander Brechalov, Head of the Udmurt Republic, speaking in front of school No88 in Izhevsk, where at least 13 people, including seven children, have died after a gunman opened fire. Picture: AFP/Telegram

The region’s governor Alexander Brechalov confirmed there were “casualties and wounded among children”, speaking in a video statement outside school No88 in Izhevsk.

Rescue and medical workers could be seen in the background, some running inside the school with stretchers.

Policemen walk near the scene of a shooting in school No88 in Izhevsk. Picture: Kommersant Photo / AFP

The attack came just hours after a man had opened fire and severely wounded a recruitment officer at an enlistment centre in Siberia.

Russia’s last major school shooting was in April, when an armed man opened fire in a kindergarten in the central Ulyanovsk region, leaving a teacher and two children dead.

The shooter, described as “mentally ill”, was later found dead, with officials saying he had shot himself.

A woman hugs a boy surrounded by other people near the scene of a shooting in school No88 in Izhevsk. Picture: Kommersant Photo / AFP

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday denounced the shooting at the school in central Russia as an “inhuman terrorist attack”, the Kremlin said.

“President Putin deeply mourns the deaths of people, children at a school where there was a terrorist attack by a person, who apparently belongs to a Neo-Fascist group,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

“The president wishes for the recovery of those injured as a result of this inhuman terrorist attack,” Peskov added.

Russian President Vladimir Putin condemned the attack. Picture: AFP

Mass shootings at schools and universities in Russia were rare until 2021, when the country was rocked by two separate killing sprees in the central Russian cities of Kazan and Perm that spurred politicians to tighten laws regulating access to guns.

In September 2021, a student dressed in black tactical clothing and helmet armed with a hunting rifle swept through Perm State University buildings killing six people, mostly women, and injuring two dozen others.

Screengrab of harrowing footage shows people leaping out of a Russian university in the city of Perm to escape a gunman, as mass shootings are on the rise. Picture: Twitter

The gunman resisted arrest and was shot by law enforcement as he was apprehended and moved to a medical facility for treatment.

It was the second such attack that year, after a 19-year-old former student shot dead nine people at his old school in the Kazan in May.

Investigators said that the gunman suffered from a brain disorder, but was deemed fit to receive a license for the semiautomatic shotgun that he used.

On the day of that attack Mr Putin called for a review of gun control laws and the age to acquire hunting rifles was increased from 18 to 21 and medical checks were strengthened.

Authorities have blamed foreign influence for previous school shootings, saying young Russians have been exposed online and on television to similar attacks in the United States and elsewhere.

Other high-profile shooting cases have taken place in Russia’s army, putting the issue of hazing in the spotlight in the country were military service is compulsory for men aged between 18 and 27.

In November 2020, a 20-year-old soldier killed three fellow servicemen at a military base near the city of Voronezh. In a similar attack in 2019, a young recruit shot dead eight servicemen, saying he faced bullying and harassment in the army.

Additional reporting by AFP

Originally published as Russian school shooting: At least 15 dead after gunman opens fire at Izhevsk school