Russians in shock as they mourn victims of campus shooting

PERM, RUSSIA • Shocked and grieving Russians gathered outside a university in the city of Perm yesterday after a student went on a campus shooting spree, killing six people and wounding dozens.

With a heavy police cordon still around Perm State University a day after the killings, they laid red carnations and lit candles at makeshift memorials.

Dr Ksenia Punina, a professor of international relations at the university, said she was shocked and in pain at the beginning of an official day of mourning over the attack. "Our university is our home," said the 40-year-old, wearing a black mask bearing the university's name.

"It's completely unexpected; a total shock when a man comes into your house with a weapon to harm your family."

On Monday morning, a university student wearing black tactical gear and a helmet roamed through the densely populated campus wielding a hunting rifle and shooting down people in his path. He was eventually confronted by police and wounded while being detained, then hospitalised.

There has been no indication yet of any motive for the attack.

The rampage caused chaos on the campus, with footage on social media showing dozens of students leaping through windows to evade the attacker.

President Vladimir Putin described the incident, which claimed the lives of one man and five women aged between 18 and 66, as a "great loss" for the entire country.

Police have closed off the university's mainly Soviet-era buildings except to senior staff.

The attack in Perm, some 1,300km from Moscow, was the second mass shooting to target students in Russia this year, and came with growing attention on gun control laws.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Monday said legislative action had already been taken to further restrict gun buying since the first attack this year in the city of Kazan, which left nine people dead. He said the authorities would analyse what had happened this time.

Investigators said the student who carried out Monday's shooting had legally obtained the hunting rifle earlier this year. Of around two dozen people injured in the attack, nine were in a critical condition, said Health Minister Mikhail Murashko, who was dispatched to the scene to coordinate a response.

One of Dr Punina's students was among those badly wounded, she told an AFP journalist at the memorial, and had undergone surgery after being shot in the stomach. "We really hope everything will be okay with her."

Ms Ekaterina Nabatova, a former student who had come to pay her respects, said some of her former teachers and classmates now working at the university had been on campus during the attack.

"They were all there," she said. "It's very hard for the whole city. It's important for us to be together today."

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE