Russian school shooting toll up

SHOCK: TWO GUARDS, TWO TEACHERS AMONG VICTIMS

Follows attack on kindergarten in April in Ulyanovsk region.

The death toll has risen to 15 people, including seven children, after a shooting at a school in the city of Izhevsk in central Russia, investigators said yesterday.

The attack was the latest in a series of school shootings that have shaken Russia in recent years.

Russia’s investigative committee had earlier said in a statement 13 people had been killed and that 14 children and seven adults were injured. Since then two more people have since died.

Investigators have said two security guards and two teachers were among the victims. They said the attacker “committed suicide”. According to the investigators, “he was wearing a black top with Nazi symbols and a balaclava” and was not carrying any ID.

The region’s governor Alexander Brechalov declared a period of mourning until Thursday.

The attack came just hours after a man had opened fire and severely wounded a recruitment officer at an enlistment centre in Siberia.

Russia’s last major school shooting was in April, when an armed man opened fire in a kindergarten in the central Ulyanovsk region, leaving a teacher and two children dead.

The shooter – described as “mentally ill” – was later found dead, with officials saying he had shot himself.

Mass shootings at schools and universities in Russia were rare until 2021, when the country was rocked by two separate killing sprees in the cities of Kazan and

Perm, that spurred lawmakers to tighten laws regulating access to guns.

In September 2021, a student dressed in black tactical clothing and helmet, armed with a hunting rifle, swept through Perm State University buildings killing six people, mostly women, and injuring two dozen others.

The gunman resisted arrest and was shot by law enforcement as he was apprehended.

It was the second such attack that year, after a 19-year-old former student shot dead nine people at his old school in the Kazan in May. Police said the gunman suffered from a brain disorder, but was deemed fit to receive a licence for the semi-automatic shotgun he used.

On the day of that attack, President Vladimir Putin called for a review of gun control laws, the age to acquire hunting rifles was increased from 18 to 21 and medical checks strengthened.