7 kids among eight killed in Russian school shooting

Moscow, May 11

At least seven schoolchildren and a teacher were killed on Tuesday and many more wounded after a teen gunman opened fire in a school in the Russian city of Kazan, the mayor’s office said, prompting a Kremlin call for tighter gun controls.

Two children could be seen leaping from the third floor of the four-storey School Number 175 to escape as gunshots rang out, in a video filmed by an onlooker that was circulated by Russia’s RIA news agency.

Calling the attack a big tragedy for the whole country, Rustam Minnikhanov, the head of the wider Tatarstan region, said there was no evidence that anyone else had been involved.

“We have lost seven children…four boys and three girls. And 16 persons, 12 children and four adults, are in hospital,” Minnikhanov said.

“The terrorist has been arrested. He’s a 19-year-old who was officially registered as a gun owner.”

Footage posted on social media showed a young man being pinned to the ground outside the school building by a police officer. — Reuters