A 14-year-old girl attacked her classmates with a firearm in a school on Thursday, killing one and injuring five others before turning the gun on herself, according to state news agencies and classmates. Russia's Investigative Committee said that the incident occurred in Bryansk which borders the war-torn Ukraine.
According to the TASS news agency, the incident was reported at 9:15 am (local time) when the eighth-grader brought a firearm into the school and fired several shots at her classmates. The weapon reportedly belongs to her father. One of the wounded succumbed to their injuries while another has been hospitalised in serious condition.
The shooter died by suicide after she turned the gun on herself. The remaining four persons injured in the shooting are in stable condition, said Russia's Deputy Health Minister Alexey Kuznetsov. An investigation has been launched into the matter and the shooter's father has been summoned for questioning.
Likely reason for the shooting
Law enforcement agencies told TASS that a conflict between the teenager and her classmates was being considered the most likely reason for the shooting. The girl will undergo a postmortem psychological and psychiatric examination.
A video shared by Russian media showed children cowered in a classroom behind a door barricaded with upended desks and chairs during the attack. Investigators are now probing the father as to how his daughter came in possession of the weapon.
Additionally, the Russian Education Ministry will provide students, teachers and parents will be provided with psychological assistance in connection with the shooting at the school. Bryansk Region Governor Alexander Bogomaz assured that authorities will provide assistance to the families of the deceased and the injured.
The presidential Children's Rights Commissioner, Maria Lvova-Belova said on her Telegram channel that she was overseeing the care of the injured children. She and President Vladimir Putin have been named in an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for alleged war crimes in Ukraine.
School shootings have increased in Russia in recent times. A gunman opened fire in a school in central Russia in September last year, killing 17 people and injuring 24 others before killing himself. Before that, a man killed two children and a staff member at a kindergarten in April 2022, also in central Russia.
In May 2021, a man opened fire at pupils at his former high school in the Russian city of Kazan, killing nine people including seven children. An 18-year-old student in 2018 killed 20 people in a school in the Russia-occupied Crimea region.
(with inputs from agencies)
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