At least 15 persons died and 24 were injured after a gunman opened fire in a school in the Central Russian city of Izhevsk Monday, media reports said. The victims include 11 children. The gunman killed himself after the shooting that took place at School Number 88 in Izhevsk.
According to a Reuters report, the attacker was a man in his early thirties, and that his name is Artem Kazantsev, who first killed two security guards and then opened fire on students and teachers at the school where he had been a student once. He killed himself later.
The school has a strength of approxiamtely 1,000 students, as per a BBC report. The gunman's motive behind the act is still unknown, said the report, adding that emergency officers were present at the scene.
Footage of the incident posted by Russian media appear to show panic inside the building where the incident took place while some videos also showed blood on a classroom floor and a bullet hole in a window, with children crouching down underneath desks, according to the BBC report.
The Reuters report said Russia's investigative committee, which handles major crimes, is looking into the killer’s suspected neo-Nazi links.
“Currently investigators … are conducting a search of his residence and studying the personality of the attacker, his views and surrounding milieu,” a statement by the committee read, according to the report. It added: “Checks are being made into his adherence to neo-fascist views and Nazi ideology.”
Quoting regional governor Alexander Brechalov, the report said the attacker had been registered with a “psycho-neurological” treatment facility. He reportedly came with two pistols and also a large supply of ammunition.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov called the incident “a terrorist act by a person who apparently belongs to a neo-fascist organisation or group”. He said President Vladimir Putin “deeply mourns” the deaths.