Shooting at Russian university leaves six dead, 28 hurt

Suspect described as student shot and detained

MOSCOW — A student opened fire 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 second-storey windows.

In some footage, a black-clad helmeted figure could be seen striding on a campus sidewalk cradling a long-barrelled weapon. Russia’s Investigative Committee, the country’s top body for criminal probes, said the gunman fired a smoothbore 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 1,100 kilometres (700 miles) east of Moscow with a population of about 1 million.

The Investigative Committee said six people were killed, revising down its earlier figure of eight dead. No explanation was given for the change. It said 28 people were injured and some of them were hospitalized. The Health Ministry said 19 of them were shot; it was not clear how the others were injured.

In a video released by the Interior Ministry, a witness whose name was not given said he saw the man outside after shooting two people and that he appeared to be wearing a bulletproof vest.