The death toll from a shooting spree at a Russian school on September 26 has risen to 17, as the Udmurtia region holds a day of mourning to honor the victims of the tragedy.
The press service of the governor of Udmurtia said on September 27 that two people died overnight, bringing the death toll from the attack — the fourth school shooting in the Volga region in the past 15 months — to 11 children and six adults.
Russia’s Investigative Committee said on September 26 that the gunman had been identified as Artyom Kazantsev, 34, who was a graduate of the school, which is attended by students from elementary school up to the end of high school.
The gunman, who some media said was wearing a T-shirt with a swastika on it, shot himself dead at the scene, the committee said.
Aleksandr Shaklein, the chief physician of the regional clinic in Izhevsk, where the school is located, said on September 27 that 16 children and two adults were currently in the city’s hospitals, and that seven of the children and the two adults were in intensive care.
According to Shaklein, 15 patients will be transported to Moscow for further treatment.
Shootings at schools and other educational institutions in Russia and other former Soviet republics were very rare until recent years, when the numbers of incidents began to rise.
In April 2022, in Veshkaima, an armed man entered a kindergarten and killed two children and a teacher before shooting himself, while in September 2021, a mass shooting took place at the Perm State National Research University, which resulted in the death of six people.
Five months before that, 19-year-old Ilnaz Galyaviev opened fire at Kazan’s School No. 175. Nine people died in the shooting, including seven children.
