School shooting in Russia leaves students, teacher dead

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KAZAN, RUSSIA MAY 11, 2021: Ambulances and police cars at school No 175 where two attackers opened fire; at least one teacher and eight students are reported dead. Yegor Aleyev/TASS (Photo by Yegor AleyevTASS via Getty Images)

NEW YORK - A gunman attacked a school Tuesday morning in the Russian city of Kazan, killing eight people — seven students and a teacher — and leaving 21 other people hospitalized with wounds, Russian officials said.

Rustam Minnikhanov, governor of the Tatarstan republic where Kazan is the capital, said Tuesday that four male and three female eighth-grade students have died in the shooting. Minnikhanov's press service later added that a teacher was also killed.

"The terrorist has been arrested, (he is) 19 years old. A firearm is registered in his name. Other accomplices haven’t been established, an investigation is underway," Minnikhanov said after visiting the school, adding that security had been restored to the school.

According to Tatarstan health officials, 21 people were hospitalized with wounds after the attack, including 18 children, six of them in intensive care.

Russia’s state RIA Novosti news agency reported earlier that 11 people had been killed in the Kazan school shooting. There was no way to immediately reconcile the differing death tolls.

Authorities said additional security measures were put into place in all schools in Kazan, a city 700 kilometers (430 miles) east of Moscow.

Police opened a criminal investigation into the shooting. Footage of the school building Tuesday showed dozens of ambulances lined up in front of the entrance.

While school shootings are relatively rare in Russia, there have been several violent attacks on schools in recent years, mostly carried out by students.