Shooting at school: 10 die
AT LEAST nine pupils and a teacher were killed and 18 people were injured yesterday in a school shooting in the Russian city of Kazan, 805km east of Moscow, the head of the Republic of Tatarstan, Rustam Minnikhanov, said.
He said the shooter, whom he called a “terrorist” was detained. The gunman had a weapon registered in his name and “no accomplices”.
Video footage shared on social media showed students hurling themselves from third-floor windows to escape the gunfire. Two children died jumping from the windows.
Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered a plane with medics, psychologists and equipment to be dispatched to Kazan to assist the victims. Putin has also instructed the head of Russia’s National Guard to “urgently” draft new regulation on what kind of weapons can be owned by civilians.
“The thing is that firearms, which are used as assault rifles and similar weapons in certain countries, are sometimes registered as hunting guns. The Russian National Guard will urgently consider the issue,” Peskov said.
School shootings are rare in Russia. In a 2004 assault on a school in Beslan in the North Caucasus, 330 people were killed by Islamist separatists. In 2014, a teenage student in Moscow shot a teacher and a police officer and took 20 classmates hostage.
Russia’s laws on civilian gun ownership are considered strict. Passing psychological exams is required to obtain a licen e for hunting and sport firearms. It’s illegal for Russians to own guns that shoot in bursts or have magazines with more than a 10-cartridge capacity. It’s unclear what kind of weapon the gunman used yesterday |