Nine, mostly children, die in shooting, Putin orders probe
KAZAN: At least nine people, most of them children, were killed on Tuesday when a lone teenage gunman opened fire at a school in the central Russian city of Kazan, officials said.
President Vladimir Putin ordered a review of gun control laws ater the shooting — one of the worst in recent Russian history — which occurred on the first day back to school following annual May holidays.
The spree started around 9:30 local time (630 GMT), sparking panic among students and teachers at the School No.175 in Kazan, the capital of the Russian predominantly Muslim republic of Tatarstan.
Amateur footage on social media, apparently filmed from a nearby building, showed people escaping from the school by jumping from second- and third-floor windows, with sounds of gunshots echoing in the schoolyard.
Police said they detained the gunman approximately one hour ater initial reports of shooting.
Seven of the dead were children in the eighth grade, Tatarstan regional leader Rustam Minnikhanov told reporters. He said two adults, including a teacher, also died.
Another 20 were hospitalised, including 18 children. Six of them were in intensive care, Lazzat Khaidarov, a spokesman for the regional authorities, told reporters.
The ages of the injured people varied from between seven and 62.
In the atermath of the killings, authorities declared a day of mourning for Wednesday while Putin expressed his “deep condolences” to the victims and called for new gun laws.
“The president gave an order to urgently work out a new provision concerning the types of weapons that can be in civilian hands, taking into account the weapon” used in the atack, his spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
Images broadcast on state television showed dozens of people outside the school with fire services and police vehicles lining nearby streets and law enforcement carrying automatic weapons patrolling the area.
The number of dead reported varied, with the city’s mayor saying eight people had been killed. Russian news agencies, citing official sources, said earlier in the day that 11 people had died.
The Interfax news agency, citing a nearby business college, identified the shooter as Ilnaz Galyaviev, who was enrolled at the Tatarstan University of Management but was expelled one month ago for poor academic performance.