School shooting in Russia leaves at least 9 dead
At least nine people, most of them students, were killed in a school shooting in central Russia on Tuesday, the local news media reported. The attack happened at School No. 175 in the Russian city of Kazan, the capital of Russia's Republic of Tatarstan. The deceased also included a teacher. Police officials have detained at least one gunman, reports say.
Eyewitnesses said there was an explosion at the school before the shooting began, The Moscow Times reports. At least 20 people have suffered injuries and several have been hospitalized, reports added. Videos from the school show children jumping out of windows to escape. Two students died after jumping from a third-floor window, RIA Novosti reported.
Видео из гимназии 175 в Казани. Помимо стрельбы там был еще и взрыв — в коридоре валяются выбитые двери и стекла. pic.twitter.com/2bCGX8bHix
— baza (@bazabazon) May 11, 2021
The shooter detained by the cops has reportedly been identified as 19-year-old Ilnaz Galyaviyev, a graduate of School No. 175. He had allegedly announced his plans to carry out the attack on social media. A regional Ministry denied that there were any accomplices after some initial reports said that a second shooter had been killed by the officers.
Rustam Minnikhanov, the President of Tatarstan, who also reportedly arrived at the school, described the shooting as a "tragedy." Meanwhile, Russia's Investigative Committee has filed a criminal case of mass murder. Russian President Vladmir Putin has ordered urgent tightening of gun control restrictions after today's incident, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said. Notably, it is already considered quite difficult to legally procure firearms in Russia.
Russia has had relatively fewer school shootings, thanks to tight security and heavy restrictions on buying guns. In November 2019, a 19-year-old student had opened fire in his college, killing one classmate and injuring three others before shooting himself dead. The previous year, a teenaged attacker killed 20 people at the Kerch Polytechnic College in the Crimean Peninsula.
