All Indian students at a medical university in the Russian city of Perm are unhurt, the Indian embassy said on Monday after a student opened fire and killed at least eight people and wounded several. “Shocked at horrific attack at Perm State University in Russia; our deep condolences for loss of life and best wishes for early recovery of those injured,” the Indian embassy in Russia tweeted. “Embassy is in touch with local authorities and representatives of Indian students. All Indian students at Perm State Medical University are safe,” it added.
All Indian students at a medical university in the Russian city of Perm are unhurt, the Indian embassy said on Monday after a student opened fire and killed at least eight people and wounded several. “Shocked at horrific attack at Perm State University in Russia; our deep condolences for loss of life and best wishes for early recovery of those injured,” the Indian embassy in Russia tweeted. “Embassy is in touch with local authorities and representatives of Indian students. All Indian students at Perm State Medical University are safe,” it added. |#+|
According to a university spokesperson, the gunman was killed after the shootings at Perm State University, around 1,300km east of Moscow. “He was liquidated,” Natalia Pechishcheva said, according to Reuters. However, the Investigative Committee, which handles probes into major crimes, later said the gunman was alive and being treated at a hospital.
The Investigative Committee said earlier the gunman was identified as a student at the university. Local media identified the gunman as an 18-year-old student who posted a photo of himself posing with a rifle, helmet and ammunition on social media. “I have thought about this for a long time, it’s been years and I realised the time had come to do what I dreamt of,” he said on a social media account attributed to him, Reuters reported.
The gunman indicated his actions had nothing to do with politics or religion but were motivated by hatred. The account was later taken down.
Also read | At least 11 killed in school shooting in Russia, several injured
Media footage from the scene showed students jumping from first-floor windows to escape the building, landing heavily on the ground before running to safety. Students built barricades out of chairs to stop the shooter from entering their classrooms, they said. “There were about 60 people in the classroom. We closed the door and barricaded it with chairs,” student Semyon Karyakin told Reuters.
In May this year, a 19-year-old gunman opened fire in his old school in the central Russian city of Kazan, killing nine people and wounding several others. Another 19-year-old student in the far eastern town of Blagoveshchensk opened fire at his college in November 2019. He killed one classmate and injured three other people before shooting and killing himself. In October 2018, another teenage gunman killed 20 people at a Kerch technical college in Crimea.
Russia raised the legal age for buying firearms from 18 to 21 after the shooting in Kazan. However, the new law has yet to come into force.
