Swastika-wearing ex-pupil kills 15 in Russian school shooting

A gunman wearing a swastika teeshirt murdered 15 people, including 11 children. He also injured 24 others at a Russian school on Monday (26 September). Then he committed suicide, investigators stated.

Authorities identified the attacker as Artem Kazantsev in his early thirties. He killed two security guards before opening fire on teachers and students at School Number88 in Izhevsk where he was once a student.

Russia's Investigative Committee is responsible for major crimes and said that it was investigating the suspected neo Nazi links of the perpetrator.

The committee stated that investigators are currently conducting a search of the victim's residence to determine the identity of the attacker and his views. "Inquiries are ongoing into his adherence towards neofascist views as well as Nazi ideology."

Investigators released a video of the body, which was found in a classroom filled with overturned furniture and bloodstained papers. The man was wearing black and a red swastika on his shirt.

According to the Investigative Committee, 24 of those who were injured were children. Alexander Brechalov, regional governor, said that surgeons have performed a variety of operations.

Dmitry Peskov, a Kremlin spokesperson, said that President Vladimir Putin "deeply regrets" his loss. The incident was described by Peskov as "a terrorist act of a person who appears to belong to a neofascist organization or group".

According to him, Putin had ordered doctors, psychologists, and neurosurgeons to be sent to Izhevsk (roughly 970km, 600 miles east of Moscow).

In recent years, Russia has witnessed several school shootings.

Seventeen-year-old Kazan gunman shot and killed two adults and seven children in Kazan, May 2021. A student with a hunting rifle and armed with a gun shot at at least six people at Perm University in the Urals.

Two children and their teacher were killed by an armed man in April 2022 at a kindergarten located in central Ulyanovsk. He then committed suicide.

A mass shooting occurred at a Russian-occupied Crimea college that was occupied by Moscow in 2018. It killed 20 students and their families.