Swastika-wearing gunman kills 7 children, 6 others at Russian school

An aerial view of the city of Izhevsk in Russia, where shots were fired at a school. PHOTO: REUTERS

MOSCOW - A gunman with a swastika on his T-shirt killed 13 people, including seven children, and wounded more than 20 at a school in Russia on Monday before shooting himself, investigators said.

The identity of the attacker and the motive for the shooting in Izhevsk, about 970km east of Moscow, were not clear.

Russian President Vladimir Putin denounced the incident as an “inhuman terrorist attack”.  

“The president wishes for the recovery of those injured as a result of this inhuman terrorist attack,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

Russia’s Investigative Committee, which handles major crimes, said the gunman was wearing a balaclava. It released a short video showing his body lying on the floor of a classroom with overturned furniture and papers strewn on the floor.

He was dressed all in black, with a red swastika in a circle drawn on his T-shirt.

The committee said the six adult victims included teachers and security guards.

It said 21 people, including 14 children, were wounded.

Russia’s Tass news agency quoted investigators as saying the attacker was armed with two pistols and a large supply of ammunition.

A city of around 630,000 people, Izhevsk is the regional capital of Russia’s Udmurt Republic.

The attack came just hours after a man opened fire and severely wounded a recruitment officer at an enlistment centre in Siberia. 

Russia has seen several school shootings in recent years.

In May 2021, a teenage gunman killed seven children and two adults in the city of Kazan.

In April 2022, an armed man killed two children and a teacher at a kindergarten in the central Ulyanovsk region before committing suicide. REUTERS

 

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