World

Deadly gun attack at Russian school

September 27, 2022 7:47 am

[Source: BBC]

A gunman has opened fire at a school in central Russia, killing at least 17 people and injuring 24, Russian officials say.

The victims include 11 children at the school of about 1,000 pupils in the city of Izhevsk.

The gunman killed himself at the scene and was a former pupil of the school.

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Videos posted online appear to show panic inside the building where the shooting took place, with children and adults running along corridors.

Other footage shows blood on a classroom floor and a bullet hole in a window, with children crouching down underneath desks.

Eleven children and four adults were killed, including two security guards and two teachers, according to Russia’s investigative committee. All but two of the 24 injured people were children.

Staff and pupils have been evacuated from the school building, which is in central Izhevsk – a city of about 650,000 residents.

The attacker – named as Artem Kazantsev, who was born in 1988 – is reported to have been armed with two pistols.

A video posted online by state investigators shows the dead body of the gunman on the floor, wearing a T-shirt with a Nazi symbol and a balaclava. Investigators are searching his place of residence.

A mourning period lasting until 29 September has been announced by the head of the region. Russian President Vladimir Putin is “deeply mourning” the deaths and denounced the shooting as an “inhuman terrorist attack”, according to his spokesperson.