17 dead — including 11 children — and 24 wounded in school shooting in Russia
MOSCOW — A gunman opened fire in a school in central Russia on Monday, killing 17 people and wounding 24 others before fatally shooting himself, authorities said.
The shooting took place in School No. 88 in Izhevsk, a city 600 miles east of Moscow in the Udmurtia region.
Russia’s Investigative Committee identified the gunman as 34-year-old Artyom Kazantsev, a graduate of the school. It said in a statement that Kazantsev wore a black T-shirt bearing “Nazi symbols.†No details about his possible motives have been released.
The government of Udmurtia said 11 children were killed in the shooting. The Investigative Committee said 22 children were among the wounded.
The governor of Udmurtia, Alexander Brechalov, said the gunman was a patient at a psychiatric facility.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov described the shooting as “a terrorist act†and said that President Vladimir Putin had given all the necessary orders to the relevant authorities.
Hollywood High School was placed on lockdown after the LAPD received a call about a shooting on campus. But the report was a hoax, the LAUSD said.
“President Putin deeply mourns deaths of people and children in the school, where a terrorist act took place,†Peskov told reporters Monday.
The school educates children between first and 11th grade. It has been evacuated, and the area around it has been cordoned off, Brechalov said.
Russia’s national guard said Kazantsev used two nonlethal handguns adapted to fire real bullets. The guns were not registered with the authorities.
A criminal probe into the incident has been launched on charges of multiple murders and illegal possession of firearms.
Izhevsk, a city of 640,000, is west of the Ural Mountains in central Russia.
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