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Russia: Children killed in shooting at school

September 26, 2022

Over a dozen people, including several children, were killed when a gunman broke into a school in central Russia. The shooter killed himself after the attack.

https://p.dw.com/p/4HL3v
Police and paramedics work at the scene of a shooting at school No. 88 in Izhevsk, Russia
The gunman was reportedly wearing clothes with Nazi symbols during the attackImage: Sergey Kuznecov/SNA/IMAGO

At least 17 people were killed and another 24 wounded after shots were fired at a school in the central Russian city of Izhevsk on Monday, authorities said.

The attack was the latest in a succession of school shootings that have shaken Russia in recent years. It comes with the country on edge over the mobilization of tens of thousands of men to fight in Ukraine.

What do we know so far?

"There was a tragedy in Udmurtia today in Izhevsk at school 88. An as-yet-unidentified person broke into the school," Udmurtia's regional Governor Alexander Brechalov said.

"There are victims among the children," Brechalov said. "There are wounded, too."

Udmurtia's government later said that 17 people, including 11 children, were killed in the shooting. Russia's Investigative Committee said that another 24 people, 22 of them children, were wounded. 

"President Putin deeply mourns deaths of people and children in the school, where a terrorist act took place," Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

"The body of the man who opened fire has now been found by police. According to reports, he committed suicide," the Udmurtia branch of the Interior Ministry said on Telegram.

The committee said the gunman — a man in his 30s who had previously been a pupil at the school — had been wearing a black T-shirt with Nazi symbols and a balaclava.

"Currently investigators ... are conducting a search of his residence and studying the personality of the attacker, his views and surrounding milieu," the committee said in a statement. "Checks are being made into his adherence to neofascist views and Nazi ideology."

They said that he had been armed with two pistols and a large amount of ammunition.

Evacuation of students of secondary school No. 88 in Izhevsk
Students and teachers were evacuated and a cordon was set up shortly after the incidentImage: picture alliance/dpa/TASS

Izhevsk, a city of 640,000, is the capital of the Udmurtia region, to the west of the Ural mountains, some 960 kilometers (600 miles) east of Moscow. The regional administration declared a period of mourning to last until Thursday.

The school is located in the city center, close to the city's administration building, and has just under 1,000 students and 80 teachers, according to TASS.

The last major school shooting in Russia was in April when a man opened fire in a kindergarten in the central Ulyanovsk region. That attack left a teacher and two children dead.

ab/rc (Reuters, AFP, dpa, AP)