Six killed in Russian university shooting

Six people have been killed and 28 others injured in a shooting at a university in the Russian city of Perm.

The shooter, who has been identified as a student at the university, was wounded after resisting arrest, and is currently in police custody in hospital.

Around 11:00 YEKT on the morning of Monday 20 September, the assailant went to the campus with a gun and a knife and started shooting.

Students and staff locked themselves in classrooms, and the university urged those who could leave the campus to do so.

Speaking to Reuters, Perm student Semyon Karaykin said: “There were about 60 people in our classroom. We closed the door and barricaded it with chairs.”

A video circulated on Russian news websites showed students leaping from first-floor windows to escape Perm State University in order to run for safety.

Speaking to the BBC, one professor described the students leaping out of buildings.

He said: “They jumped out in some horror, screaming. One of the students told me that it was a shooting. I heard pops, everyone began to scatter in different directions. I went to my students in the second building and continued to hear the pops.”

“As it looks, we are talking about some deviations of a young man who has committed these killings, and I think that specialists have to deal with this and understand what the reason behind this tragedy was”

–Dmitry Peskov

Authorities said the attacker was shot in an exchange of gunfire with a police officer and then detained.

The Investigative Committee, which probes major crimes in Russia, said that 28 people were being treated after the attack, and “some of them have been hospitalised with injuries of varying severity”.

In a statement, President Vladimir Putin called the shooting “a great loss not only for the families who lost their children, but for the whole country”.

He added: “This is a huge disaster, and not only for families who have lost their children, but for the entire country. Law enforcement agencies will do everything necessary to investigate this terrible crime, to find out the reasons for what happened, and the regional and federal authorities will take all necessary steps to support the victims and the families of the killed children.”

The president’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: “As it looks, we are talking about some deviations of a young man who has committed these killings, and I think that specialists have to deal with this and understand what the reason behind this tragedy was.”

This incident is the second mass shooting at an educational establishment in Russia this year. In May, seven children were killed and 16 others injured after a gunman attacked a school in Kazan.