Gunman opens fire in Russian school ‘killing six and injuring 20’

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Russia was hit by a major school shooting today that killed six and injured about 20 after a gunman rioted, the interior ministry has confirmed.

According to initial reports, a guard died and ten children were injured or killed at school No. 88 in Izhevsk, the capital of the Russian Republic of Udmurt.

It was reported that students and teachers huddled under desks and hid in closets in their classrooms as the gunman made his way through the hallways.

Other students were injured after jumping from the windows to escape the gunfire.

Newscast 112 reported that six people, including a security guard and children aged 10-15, were killed, but the age and identity of the deceased have not yet been confirmed by authorities.

Police later found the attacker dead in the school after committing suicide. His motive is unknown.

“According to preliminary data, the assailant was armed with two handguns. His identity has not yet been established,” Alexander Khinshtein, head of the State Duma Information Policy Committee, wrote on his Telegram channel.

According to the first reports, a guard died and ten children were injured or killed in school No. 88 in Izhevsk (photo) - the capital of the Russian Republic of Udmurt

According to the first reports, a guard died and ten children were injured or killed in school No. 88 in Izhevsk (photo) – the capital of the Russian Republic of Udmurt

Video footage posted to Telegram's messaging app showed terrified children and a teacher huddled in a biology class while hiding from the gunman

Video footage posted to Telegram's messaging app showed terrified children and a teacher huddled in a biology class while hiding from the gunman

Video footage posted to Telegram's messaging app showed terrified children and a teacher huddled in a biology class while hiding from the gunman

Video footage posted to Telegram's messaging app showed terrified children and a teacher huddled in a biology class while hiding from the gunman

Video footage posted to Telegram’s messaging app showed terrified children and a teacher huddled in a biology class while hiding from the gunman

Video footage posted to the Telegram messaging app showed terrified children and a teacher huddled in a biology classroom while hiding from the gunman.

An unnamed girl posted from the siege: ‘We’re in biology class.

“Moved from class to lab. The whole class is crying. They don’t tell us anything. Very scary.’

Another video saw children as young as nine or ten huddled in a classroom and crouched on the floor.

They can be heard whispering ‘Be quiet!’ to each other.

According to reports, school principal Elena Semashko, 50, had locked herself and an injured teenager in an office to prevent the attack.

The press service of the Ministry of Education stated that the head of the department, Sergei Kravtsov, sent a delegation to the school after the attack to oversee the investigation.

Rescue workers carry an injured child on a stretcher to an ambulance outside the school

Rescue workers carry an injured child on a stretcher to an ambulance outside the school

Rescue workers carry an injured child on a stretcher to an ambulance outside the school

Outside the school in Izhevsk .  is a police van depicted

Outside the school in Izhevsk .  is a police van depicted

Outside the school in Izhevsk . is a police van depicted

A major operation was underway by Russian law enforcement to break the siege, until it was revealed that the gunman… shot himself in room 403.

Once the attack was over, footage showed injured children being taken from the school to waiting ambulances.

One – with visible wounds – was performed atop a school desk.

The school has 982 students and 80 teachers.

Many of those affected, according to reports, were first graders – seven years old.

Governor of Udmurtia Alexander Brechalov said: ‘We have deployed everything in school 88. Special services, ambulances are all there. I am on site, I will report all updates.

“Until now, an unknown person entered the school, killed a guard, it is already known that there are casualties among children and injured. Now the evacuation has ended.

Brechalov later reported: “It is already known that a guard has been killed, there are casualties among children, wounded … The attacker shot himself.”

Izhevsk is the headquarters of the Kalashnikov weapons empire and the birthplace of the famous AK-47 assault rifle, among many other small arms used around the world.

The school is located in the center of Izhevsk, a city of about 650,000 inhabitants, close to central government buildings.

The attack came when another gunman opened fire at a Russian military recruiter office in the far east city of Irkutsk, leaving the main military recruiter in critical condition.

Russian military commissar is shot dead

Russian military commissar is shot dead

Shooter points his gun at other conscripts

Shooter points his gun at other conscripts

This is when gunman Ruslan Zinin, 25 (far left and second right), walked into a Russian recruiting office in Irkutsk and shot military commissar Alexander Eliseev (second from left).

Dramatic footage of the man walking up to the recruiter, standing on the podium in front of new conscripts, firing a single shot at close range while yelling, ‘Nobody is going to fight!’

The man – identified as Ruslan Zinin, 25 – was angry after his friend was drafted into the army following Putin’s announcement of a partial military mobilization during the war in Ukraine.

According to local reports, Zinin had told his mother that he was going to the recruiting office to volunteer.

Igor Kobzev, the governor of the Irkutsk region, said military commissioner Alexander Eliseev was in “critical condition” after the attack and the gunman was arrested on the spot “and will certainly be punished.”

It comes as opposition to Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine mounts after he gives orders to enlist men in the military while a recruitment office in the Volgograd region is bombed overnight.