Attack on Crimea college kills 17
Witnesses say attacker fired shots but also mention hearing an explosion
Witnesses say attacker fired shots but also mention hearing an explosion
Seventeen people were killed and dozens more wounded, most of them teenagers, after an attack on a college in Russian-annexed Crimea yesterday, with conflicting versions referring to a lone shooter and a bomb.
Russia’s Investigative Committee said the attack was carried out by 18-year-old student Vladislav Roslyakov, who was captured on security camera footage carrying a gun in the technical college in Kerch and whose body was found with gunshot wounds.
The Investigative Committee, which probes major incidents, had initially classified the attack as an act of terror, but later said it was investigating a mass murder after “this young man shot dead people in the college and then committed suicide,” adding that all victims died of gunshot wounds.
The attack had first been reported as an explosion, with Russia’s National AntiTerrorism Committee saying an “unidentified explosive device” had gone off.
Committee spokesman Andrei Przhezdomsky said bomb squads were working “at the blast site”, adding that the body of Roslyakov was found in the college next to a pump-action gun.
Witnesses said that the attacker fired shots but also spoke of hearing an explosion.
A witness who gave his name as Sergei said in a video on the Kerch.tv website that he heard “a bang and shots”.
Sergei said victims “were taken away in public transport, in minibuses and buses, with two or three people in each ambulance”.