A schoolgirl shot dead another student and wounded five others at a Russian school today, before turning the gun on herself.
Officials said the 14-year-old opened fire with a pump-action shotgun, with reports saying the attack was carried out inside a classroom at the school.
She killed one pupil and injured at least five others, officials said, before killing herself at the school in the Russian city of Bryansk, police said on Thursday.
Those injured in the attack at the Gymnasium Number 5 school were rushed to hospital, with one – a boy – reported to be in a serious condition in intensive care.
Regional governor Alexander Bogomaz called it a ‘terrible tragedy’. He said the five people wounded were all children with mild or moderate injuries.
Initial reports from Russia said the shooter was named Alina.
A schoolgirl shot dead another student and wounded five others at a Russian school today, before turning the gun on herself. Russian news published a purported photograph of the dead shooter, sprawled on the floor next to a pool of blood and a shotgun
Officials said the 14-year-old opened fire with a pump-action shotgun, with reports saying the attack was carried out inside a classroom at the school. Pictured: Pupils are seen gathered outside the school today having been evacuated
The news outlet Mash published what it said was a photograph of the dead shooter, sprawled on the floor next to a pool of blood and a shotgun, dressed all in black.
It said she was also armed with a hunting knife.
The photo appeared to show a long-handled knife tucked into her right boot.
Other images showed blood splattered over the ground amidst scattered chairs, desks and a shotgun casing.
The alleged shooter was also pictured in what appeared to be a school photo. While her face was blurred, it showed her as blonde in a white school shirt.
Russian officials confirmed the attack.
‘According to preliminary investigation data, a 14-year-old girl brought a pump-action shotgun to school, from which she fired shots at her classmates,’ Russia‘s Investigative Committee said in a statement.
‘As a result of the incident, two people were killed (one of them was the shooter), five were injured and have now been taken to a medical facility.’
Investigators were working to establish the motive, the statement said, and it is understood that a murder investigation has been opened.
Students were evacuated from the school, with footage purportedly captured outside today showing them grouped outside in the snow.
Law enforcement officers stand guard outside Gymnasium Number Five following a shooting, in which two people were killed – including the shooter – in Bryansk on December 7
Investigators were working to establish the motive, the statement said, and it is understood that a murder investigation has been opened. Pictured: Police are seen at the school
Regional governor Alexander Bogomaz said: ‘A terrible tragedy occurred today at gymnasium No. 5 in Bryansk.
‘One of the pupils carried a firearm into the educational establishment. Two children were killed, one of them the girl who fired the gun.
‘Five children were wounded, two of them were slightly wounded, three of them were moderately wounded, all of them were taken to the children’s regional hospital.
‘They are receiving the necessary assistance. All operational services are working at the site.
‘Together with law enforcement agencies, we are finding out the circumstances under which the student was able to get and carry a weapon into the school.
‘My sincere condolences to the parents of the girl who died at the hands of the shooter. This is an irreparable loss. The families of the dead girl and the injured children will receive all the necessary assistance.’
Bryansk borders Ukraine, with the school sitting around 65 miles from the border.
Guns are normally tightly controlled in Russia, but Bryansk is one of several southern regions that have seen cross-border attacks in the course of the war with Ukraine, and where Moscow has encouraged the formation of self-defence units.
Russia has seen several school shootings in recent years.
Those injured in the attack at the Gymnasium Number 5 school (pictured) were rushed to hospital, with one – a boy – reported to be in a serious condition in intensive care
In 2018, an 18-year-old student killed 20 people, mostly fellow pupils, in a mass shooting at a college in Russian-occupied Crimea, which Moscow seized from Ukraine in 2014.
In 2021, a 19-year-old shooter killed nine people in a school in Kazan, in Tatarstan. That same year, a teenager killed six people at a university in the Urals city of Perm.
And in September last year, a gunman with a swastika on his t-shirt killed 15 people, including 11 children, and wounded 24 at a school in Izhevsk where he had once been a pupil, and then committed suicide, investigators said.
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