Several children killed in school shooting in Russia’s Kazan

A gunman has launched an attack on a school in the Russian city of Kazan that left at least nine people dead — including seven youngsters — and sent students hiding under their desks or running out of the building.

At least 21 others were hospitalized, six in extremely grave condition, authorities said.

The attacker, identified only as a 19-year-old, was arrested, officials said. They gave no immediate details on a motive.

But Russian media said the gunman was a former student at the school who called himself “a god” on his account on the messaging app Telegram and promised to “kill a large amount of biomass” on the morning of the shooting.

According to Tatarstan health officials, 21 people were hospitalised with wounds after the attack, including 18 children, six of them in intensive care.

Russia’s state RIA Novosti news agency reported earlier that 11 people had been killed in the Kazan school shooting. There was no way to immediately reconcile the differing death tolls.

Several brutal attacks on schools

Authorities said additional security measures were put into place in all schools in Kazan, a city 700 kilometres east of Moscow.

Police opened a criminal investigation into the shooting. Footage of the school building Tuesday showed dozens of ambulances lined up in front of the entrance.

While school shootings are relatively rare in Russia, there have been several violent attacks on schools in recent years, mostly carried out by students.