Seven of the victims – four boys and three girls – were reportedly eighth grade students.
Posted on May 11, 2021 at 5:28 am ET
Roman Kruchinin / AFP via Getty Images
People react at the location of the shooting near an ambulance.
According to Russian state media reports, at least nine people died in a shooting and explosion in the Russian city of Kazan on Tuesday.
Seven students, a teacher and another school employee died in the attack on school No. 175, RIA Novosti reported, citing Rustam Minnikhanov, governor of Tatarstan, where Kazan is located.
All seven students – four boys and three girls – went to eighth grade. About 20 other people were injured.
Local reports suggest the attack began around 10 a.m. local time. Teachers and students told Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty that they heard a huge explosion in the school before they heard gunshots and fled.
The neighbors across from the school shared videos on social media showing smoke rising from the building shortly after the first explosion was heard. Another video showed rubble from the school.
A video posted by Russian Telegram news networks shows children jumping out of school windows amid gunfire. RIA Novosti, citing an ambulance source, reported that two other students died after jumping out of a third-floor window, but those deaths have not been confirmed.
Yegor Aleyev / Yegor Aleyev / TASS
A man lays flowers in front of the school.
Minnikhanov said the shooter, a 19-year-old with a registered gun, was arrested. The independent news site of Novaya Gazeta identified the alleged shooter as Ilnaz Galyaviyev and posted a photo of him in police custody. Novaya Gazeta said he was a graduate of the school.
The footage released by Telegram news broadcaster Mash showed the shooter surrendering and being held on the ground by police. Early reports suggested that a second shooter may have been involved, but Minnikhanov said “other accomplices have not been identified.”
The fatal shootout caused Russian President Vladimir Putin to tighten the country’s gun laws, the RIA Novosti reported, citing Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.
Peskov told reporters in Moscow that Putin had issued a special order to the head of the Russian National Guard, Viktor Zolotov, to “draw up new regulations on the types of weapons intended for civil use that could be owned by citizens, including citizens Types of small arms used by the shooter in this shooting. “
Yegor Aleyev / Yegor Aleyev / TASS
Police cars and ambulances outside the shooting range
“The fact is, hunting weapons are sometimes registered as small arms, which in some countries are used as assault rifles, and so on. This is also quickly worked out by the National Guard, ”added Peskov.
School shootings in Russia and the former Soviet republics are less common than in the US, but their frequency has increased in recent years. In November 2019, a gunman shot and killed a student at a college in Russia’s Far East before killing himself. And in October 2018, a student at a college there in the Russian-annexed Crimea killed 20 people before turning the gun on himself.
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