At least nine people, including seven children, were killed on Tuesday, 11 May, when a teenage gunman opened fire at a school in the Russian city of Kazan, AFP reported.
Four of the children were boys and three girls, reported Reuters, quoting Rustam Minnikhanov, the president of the Tatarstan region.
Twenty-one others, most of them children, were injured in the incident that saw a 19-year-old suspect, a registered owner of a gun, being detained. Reports said that Russian investigators found that he is a Kazan resident.
According to BBC, the shooter posted on social media before the incident, saying that he planned to kill a "huge number" of people before shooting himself. Photos allegedly show him wearing a black mask with the word "god" written across it.
A Tragedy
In reaction to the shooting, Russian President Vladimir Putin said he would review the country's gun control laws, reported BBC, while Minnikhanov called the incident a “tragedy”.
"We are deeply saddened that this has happened," Minnikhanov said.
Russian PM Mikhail Mishustin meanwhile spoke of "great sorrow", reported BBC.
Videos of the incident showed some children jumping out of windows to escape the gunfire, and Russian TV reported that two of the children had died after doing so.
More footage from the incident shows scenes inside the school of corridors strewn with debris, smashed glass and broken doors.
There were 714 children and about 70 employees at the school, including 52 teachers, present at the time of the incident.
Law enforcement agencies are working at the scene, and security measures have been strengthened at all educational institutions in Kazan.
This is Russia’s deadliest school shooting since 2018 when a student at a college in Crimea killed 20 people before shooting himself, reported Reuters.
(With inputs from AFP, BBC and Reuters.)
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