One Dead, Three Injured as Student Opens Fire in Russia’s Far Eastern College
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – One person was killed and three injured on Thursday when a student opened fire at a college in Blagoveshchensk, a city in Russia’s Far Eastern Amur Region, the Amur Region department of the Russian interior ministry said.
The shooter committed suicide by turning the gun on himself.
"Bodies of two young men, including the shooter, were found at the site of the incident. Also, according to early reports, three were injured," the department said in a statement. "Preliminary information suggests that the gunman committed suicide using his weapon. It is registered as belonging to this citizen."
The statement says that a young man ran up to a road police squad and informed them about the shooting in a college building nearby. Police spotted an armed man in the second-storey window, who fired a shot at them. The officers returned fire, and the gunman was subsequently blocked in a lecture hall.
"The officers were not injured," the statement said. "The young people who were wounded are receiving medical assistance."
Police sees the shooter’s conflict with fellow students as a possible reason for the incident.
An emergencies source earlier told Tass that the shooting began after a college student, who was late for classes, was told to leave the lecture hall. He said the incident occurred at about 10:00 local time on Thursday (04:00 Moscow time).’
A spokesperson for the Amur Region health ministry said that the injured were diagnosed with "multiple gunshot wounds."
"Two injured teenagers were taken to the Regional Children’s Clinical Hospital: one in critical condition, the other in moderately severe condition. The third injured is in the Blagoveshchensk City Hospital, his condition is compensated," the source said.
A source in the Children’s Clinical Hospital said the two patients are now being operated on.
The Russian Investigative Committee said on its website it had launched a criminal case into the shooting.
"According to the investigation, a 19-year-old student of the Amur College of Construction and Utilities opened fire on the premises of this educational facility," investigators said. "As a result, a 19-year-old man was killed, three other young men - aged 17, 19 and 20 - were injured and admitted to hospital."
Amur Region Governor Vasily Orlov said on his Instagram page that law enforcement officers and investigators were working at the scene to determine the details, motives and reasons behind the tragedy. "It is now known that there was one attacker, and he is dead," he said.
Blagoveshchensk mayor Valentina Kalita will gather an emergency commission later in the day to discuss security measures in educational facilities in the wake of the incident, a city administration source said.
