Russians gathered outside a university in the city of Perm where the shooting took place
PERM (Russia), Sept 21 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Shocked and grieving Russians gathered outside a university in the city of Perm on Tuesday after a student went on a campus shooting spree, killing at least six people and wounding dozens.
With a heavy police cordon still around Perm State University a day after the killings, they laid red carnations and lit candles at makeshift memorials.
On Monday morning a university student wearing black tactical gear and a helmet roamed through the densely populated campus wielding a hunting rifle and shooting down people in his path.
He was eventually confronted by police and wounded while being detained, then hospitalised.
There has been no indication yet of any motive for the attack.
The rampage caused chaos on the campus, with footage on social media showing dozens of students leaping through windows to evade the attacker.
President Vladimir Putin described the incident, which claimed the lives of one man and five women aged between 18 and 66, as a “great loss” for the entire country.
On Tuesday morning, police had closed off the university’s mainly Soviet-era buildings except to senior staff.
The attack in Perm, some 1,300km from Moscow, was the second mass shooting to target students in Russia this year, and came with growing attention on gun control laws.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that legislative action had already been taken to further restrict gun buying since the first attack this year in the city of Kazan, which left nine people dead.
He said authorities would analyse what had happened this time.
Investigators said the student who carried out Monday’s shooting had legally obtained the hunting rifle earlier this year.
Of around two dozen people injured in the attack, nine were in a critical condition, said health minister Mikhail Murashko, who was dispatched to the scene to coordinate a response.
Local media said education minister Valery Falkov visited injured students in hospital Monday evening and said those that need more intense care will be taken to Moscow.
Authorities have blamed foreign influence for previous school shootings, saying young Russians have been exposed online and on television to similar attacks in the United States and elsewhere. — NNN-AGENCIES
