Student gunman kills six in university shooting

A student armed with a hunting rifle opened fire at a university in the Russian city of Perm on Monday, killing at least six people and wounding many others, investigators said. Video shown on news websites showed panicked students leaping from first-floor windows to escape Perm State University, around 1,300km east of Moscow, landing heavily on the ground before running to safety. “There were about 60 people in our classroom. We closed the door and barricaded it with chairs,” student Semyon Karyakin said. The gunman was wounded after resisting arrest, and was being treated in hospital, the Investigative Committee law enforcement agency said in a statement. Local media identified the gunman as an 18-year-old student who had earlier posted a photo of himself on social media, posing with a rifle. “I’ve thought about this for a long time... and I realised the time had come to do what I dreamt of,” said social media account attributed to him.

MOSCOW: A student opened fire on Monday at a university in Russia, leaving six people dead and 28 hurt, before being shot by police and detained, officials said. Beyond saying that he was a student, authorities offered no further information on his identity or possible motive.

During the attack, students and staff at Perm State University locked themselves in rooms, and video posted on Russian news sites showed some students jumping out of secondstory windows.

In some footage, a black-clad helmeted figure could be seen striding on a campus sidewalk cradling a long-barreled weapon. Russia’s investigative committee, the country’s top body for criminal probes, said the gunman fired a smooth-bore hunting weapon. That could indicate he used a shotgun.

The university, which has 12,000 students, said about 3,000 people were on campus at the time of the shooting.

The school is in Perm, a city 1,100km east of Moscow.

A traffic police unit was the first to reach the scene, and the suspect opened fire on them, according to the interior ministry. He was wounded when police returned fire and then was disarmed. The gunman also was armed with a knife.

Pro-Putin party retains large majority in parl

Russia’s ruling party retained its supermajority in parliament, further cementing President Vladimir Putin’s grip on power following elections that excluded most opposition politicians and were marred by multiple reports of violations. Results released on Monday from nearly 99% of the country’s polling stations gave the ruling United Russia party 49.8% of the vote for the 225 seats apportioned by parties.