The attack was the latest in a series of school shootings that have rocked Russia in recent years and the country has stood by its efforts to mobilize tens of thousands of men to fight in Ukraine.
“Thirteen people, including six adults and seven minors, were killed as a result of this crime,” Russia’s Investigative Committee said in a statement, adding that 14 children and seven adults were injured.
According to investigators, “he was wearing a black top with Nazi symbols and a balaclava” and had no identification card.
The Russian Interior Ministry also said that around 20 people were injured in the attack.
Speaking in a video statement outside School No. 88 in Izhevsk, the governor of the region, Alexander Brychalov, confirmed that “children have been killed and injured.”
Rescue and medical workers can be seen in the background, some running inside the school with stretchers.
According to news agencies, Russia’s Health Ministry said “14 ambulance teams” were working at the scene to treat the injured.
A city of about 630,000 people, Izhevsk is the regional capital of Russia’s Udmurt Republic, located about 1,000 kilometers (620 mi) east of Moscow.
The attack comes hours after a man opened fire and seriously wounded a recruitment officer at a recruitment center in Siberia.
Russia’s last major school shooting was in April, when a gunman opened fire at a kindergarten in the central Ilyansk region, killing a teacher and two children.
The shooter, who was described as “mentally ill,” was later found dead, authorities say, of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Mass shootings at schools and universities were rare in Russia until 2021, when the country was rocked by two separate killings in the central Russian cities of Kazan and Perm that prompted lawmakers to regulate access to guns. Encouraged to tighten the rules.
In September 2021, a student dressed in black tactical clothing and helmet armed with a hunting rifle entered the buildings of Perm State University, killing six people, mostly women, and injuring two dozen others.
The gunman resisted arrest and was shot by law enforcement after he was arrested and transported to a medical facility for treatment.
It was the second attack this year, after a 19-year-old former student shot dead nine people at his old school in Kazan in May.
Investigators said the gunman suffered from a mental disorder, but was deemed fit to obtain a license for the semi-automatic shotgun he used.
On the day of the attack, President Vladimir Putin called for a review of gun control laws, raising the age to own hunting rifles from 18 to 21 and strengthening medical examinations.
Officials have blamed foreign influence for previous school shootings, saying young Russians have been exposed online and on television to similar attacks in the U.S. and elsewhere.
Other high-profile shootings have taken place in Russia’s military, drawing attention to the issue of hazing in the country, where military service is compulsory for men aged 18 to 27.
In November 2020, a 20-year-old soldier killed three fellow soldiers at a military base near the city of Voronezh. In a similar attack in 2019, a young recruit shot dead eight soldiers, saying he faced bullying and harassment in the army.
