MOSCOW — The death toll has risen to 15
people, including 11 children, after a man opened fire Monday at his former
school in central
Russia, authorities said.
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The attack was the latest in a series of school
shootings that have shaken Russia in recent years and came with the country on
edge over efforts to mobilize tens of thousands of men to fight in Ukraine.
Russian President
Vladimir Putin denounced the
“inhuman terrorist attack” in the city of Izhevsk, the Kremlin said, adding
that the shooter “apparently belongs to a neo-fascist group”.
According to investigators, the attacker “was
wearing a black top with Nazi symbols and a balaclava” when his body was
discovered.
He was later identified as a local man born in 1988,
who graduated from the school.
Investigators have said two security guards and two
teachers were among the victims, while the attacker “committed suicide”.
Authorities previously announced a death toll of
seven children and six adults but did not specify if that included the
suspected shooter.
Investigators said they were searching his home and
probing his “adherence to neo-fascist views and Nazi ideology”.
The region’s governor Alexander Brechalov confirmed
there were “casualties and wounded among children”, speaking in a video
statement outside school No88 in Izhevsk.
Rescue and medical workers could be seen in the
background, some running inside the school with stretchers.
Brechalov declared a period of mourning in the
region to last until Thursday.
A city of around 630,000 people, Izhevsk is the
regional capital of Russia’s Udmurt Republic, located around 1,000km east of
Moscow.
The attack came just hours after a man had opened
fire and severely wounded a recruitment officer at an enlistment center in
Siberia.
Russia’s last major school shooting was in April,
when a 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 central Russian cities of Kazan and Perm that spurred lawmakers
to tighten laws regulating access to guns.
Authorities have blamed foreign influence for
previous school shootings, saying young
Russians have been exposed online and
through television to similar attacks in the United States and elsewhere.
Other high-profile shooting cases have taken place in
Russia’s army, putting the issue of hazing in the spotlight in the country
where military service is compulsory for men aged between 18 and 27.
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