By Ebi Kesiena
A gunman opened fire on Monday at a university campus in central Russia and killed six people before being detained, investigators said, in the country’s second mass shooting this year to target students.
Viral video on social media showed students throwing belongings from the windows of university buildings in the city of Perm, around 1,300 kilometres east of Moscow, before jumping to flee the shooter.
The Investigative Committee which probes major crimes in Russia, initially said eight people were killed, but later revised the number of deaths to six.
It said 28 people were being treated after the attack at Perm State National Research University.
It said the gunman, later identified as a student at the university, carried out the shooting with a hunting rifle he purchased earlier this year.
“Some of them have been hospitalised with injuries of varying severity.
“During his arrest, he put up resistance and was wounded, after which he was taken to a medical facility,” the statement said.
The Health Ministry, in comments cited by Russian news agencies, said 19 among the wounded were being treated for gunshots.
State media broadcast amateur footage reportedly taken during the attack, showed an individual dressed in black tactical clothing, including a helmet, carrying a weapon and walking through the campus.
Video from outside the university showed distressed students fleeing the campus and making phone calls to friends and family behind a cordon of police wearing helmets and body armour.
President Vladimir Putin had been notified of the shooting, the Kremlin said, and ministers had been ordered to travel to Perm to coordinate assistance for the victims.
Mr Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov, told reporters that the President expresses sincere condolences to those who have lost family and loved ones as a result of this incident.
Peskov noted that despite the tightened legislation unfortunately, this tragedy has happened, and it has to be analysed.
“Law enforcement agencies must give an expert assessment. It looks like we are talking about abnormalities in a young man who committed these killings,” Peskov said.
Regional authorities said that classes at local schools, colleges and universities were cancelled on Monday.
School shootings have been relatively unusual in Russia due to tight security at education facilities and because it is difficult to buy firearms.
But Monday’s attack was the second one this year, after a 19-year-old opened fire in his old school in the central city of Kazan in May, killing nine people.
Investigators said the gunman suffered from a brain disorder, but he was deemed fit to receive a license for the semi-automatic shotgun he used in the attack.
