‘Inhuman terrorist attack’: Russia school shooting leaves 15 dead, including children
A gunman wearing “Nazi symbols” has opened fire in an “inhuman terrorist attack” at a school in Russia, killing many children, and others.
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A gunman wearing a swastika and balaclava has killed at least 15 people, including 11 children, and wounded more than 39 after carrying out a mass shooting at a school in Russia
The incident took place on Monday in the city of Izhevsk in central Russia, investigators said. The shooter was a former student at the school and died by suicide, authorities added.
Videos posted on social media appear to show panic inside the building where the shooting took place.
Some footage shows blood on a classroom floor and a bullet hole in a window, with children crouching down underneath desks.
The attack was the latest in a series of school shootings that have shaken Russia in recent years and came with the country on edge over efforts to mobilise tens of thousands of men to fight in Ukraine.
Eleven children and four adults were killed, including two security guards and two teachers, according to Russian officials.
“I express my deep, sincere condolences to the relatives and friends of those who died as a result of the cynical and ruthless attack on the school in Izhevsk,” Investigative Committee Chairman Alexander Bastrykin said in a statement. “The monstrous crime claimed the lives of children, including very young ones, and adults. This is a terrible tragedy, a heavy loss for all of us.”
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Authorities previously announced a death toll of nine people but did not specify if that figure included the suspected shooter.
A video posted online by the investigative committee shows the gunman lying dead on the floor wearing a T-shirt with a red Nazi symbol and a balaclava. Investigators are searching his place of residence.
One local MP said the attacker – named as Artem Kazantsev- had been armed with two pistols.
The Investigative Committee of the #Russian Federation reports that nine people were killed in the school shooting in #Izhevsk - 5 schoolchildren, 2 guards and 2 teachers. pic.twitter.com/11s9PqLUuL
— NEXTA (@nexta_tv) September 26, 2022
Russian President Vladimir Putin denounced the “inhuman terrorist attack” on Monday.
“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.
Today in Izhevsk, a man wearing a T-shirt with Nazi symbols & armed with 2 guns walked into a school, shot the guards & began shooting at the children.
— Anton Gerashchenko (@Gerashchenko_en) September 26, 2022
13 people were killed, including 7 children. The man shot himself.
This is a horrible crime and an awful tragedy. pic.twitter.com/pvr5NLYiTo
According to investigators, the shooter “was wearing a black top with Nazi symbols and a balaclava” and was not carrying any ID.
Rescue and medical workers could be seen outside school No88 in Izhevsk in the background, some running inside the school with stretchers.
BREAKING: A gunman has opened fire at a school in Izhevsk, Russia with officials saying at least six people have been killed. More follows… pic.twitter.com/8ZW6KLgcjF
— TalkTV (@TalkTV) September 26, 2022
Russia’s health ministry said “14 ambulance teams” were working at the scene to help the injured, news agencies reported.
Mr 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 1,000kms east of Moscow.
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 died by suicide.
Tightening gun laws
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.
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.
– With AFP
Originally published as ‘Inhuman terrorist attack’: Russia school shooting leaves 15 dead, including children
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