Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Escape from hell
Kids flee as gunman shoots nine dead in school horror
RESCUE Firefighter helps pupil from class
TERRIFIED pupils fled a school on ladders after a gunman went on the rampage killing nine people, including seven children.
Youngsters described scenes of chaos as the sound of an explosion “thundered” through corridors.
It was followed by gunshots as the killer, named locally as ex-pupil Ilnaz Galyaviev, 19, moved from class to class hunting down victims.
One pupil said: “Everyone started panicking and saying, ‘Shut the doors.’ About a minute later the head teacher started yelling, ‘We’re shutting the doors.’ We got out about 15 minutes later.”
Firefighters could be seen helping pupils down the ladders
Another 21 people were injured, including 18 children. Six remained in intensive care last night. The gunman was arrested and is being quizzed by detectives in the Russian World Cup city of Kazan – 500 miles east of the capital Moscow.
President Rustam Minnikhanov described the incident as a “disaster” and a “tragedy”.
He said: “We have lost seven children, eighth-grade students, four boys and three girls. They died on the third floor.
“The terrorist has been arrested. He’s a registered firearm owner.”
The killer was spotted on CCTV prowling around the school before launching his attack.
Witnesses reported seeing black smoke at the 175-pupil school. An unconfirmed social media account belonging to Galyaviev contained posts in which he described himself as a “bloodthirsty deity”.
It also said that he planned to kill a “huge number” of people before turning the gun on himself. The account was later blocked.
The tragedy came as Russian workplaces and institutions returned from a 10-day national holiday marking both Labour Day and the 76th anniversary of Soviet Russia’s defeat of Nazi Germany in the Second World War.
Kazan was host to six matches during the 2018 World Cup including Belgium’s win over Brazil in the quarter finals.