At least nine people – eight children and a 26-year-old English teacher – have been killed during a mass shooting at a school in Kazan, Russia. The Governor of the Tatarstan region has confirmed the deaths of four boys and four girls from the eighth grade at the school and the hospitalization of another twelve children and four adults, while the Russian news agency RIA has provided a higher casualty count of eleven people.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered a review of gun control policies, suggesting greater limits on private gun ownership may be sought even as anti-Putin rallies continue to trigger mass arrests and the Russian government debates a bill which would prevent any supporters of Putin political opponent Alexei Nalvany from seeking office.
Tatarstan is a mostly Muslim region with heavily anti-Western biases; local businesses made international headlines due to their calendars showing President Obama as a monkey. The motivation for the shooting is not yet known; the Governor referred to the attacker as terrorism, but with the revelation of his identity have come a variety of social media posts indicating general misanthropy. The shooter is Ilnaz Galyaviyev, a 19-year-old who was a recent graduate of the school.
Reports are that guns were not the exclusive weapons used. A tweet showed part of the school after the attack, which seems to back reports of explosives.
Some children jumped from the school windows to escape the shooter. Initial reports are that some of the injuries and deaths were the result of injuries sustained in those falls rather than gunshots or shrapnel.
