Time.news – A school shooting in Kazan, Tatarstan, shook Russia this morning, recalling the massacre that took place in 2004 in Beslan, North Ossetia, when a group of over 30 terrorists killed over 300 people (including 186 children) injuring at least 700.
The toll of the new massacre is currently 9 victims, as reported by the city authorities, although local agencies have reported, following different sources, between 7 and 11 deaths. Authorities in Russia’s sixth most populous city said the number of injured, some very seriously, is 21 people, 18 students and 3 staff members. According to the Tass agency, at the time of the accident, there were 714 children and about 70 employees in the institute, including 52 teachers.
Who is the author of the massacre
The perpetrator of the new massacre, the 19-year-old Ilnaz Galyaviev, a former student of the school, acted alone despite the fact that, in the first hours after the tragedy, news had circulated of an accomplice, also armed, killed by police officers while he was barricaded on the fourth floor.
This was specified by the governor of Tatarstan, Rustam Minnikhanov, who described the massacre as “a disaster” and “a tragedy” assuring that psychological help will be brought to students and families. The young man also was “in possession of a duly registered weapon,” he added.
Some amateur videos, posted on social media, showed some boys, panicked, as they threw themselves from the third floor of the building to avoid running into the attackers after hearing the shots echoing through the corridors.
The ‘crazy’ words of the assailant
The motive that prompted the 19-year-old to attack the school building is not yet fully understood but a video circulates on Telegram showing Galyaviev being questioned by the police who are holding him in custody. The young man says he “hates everyone” and “realized two months ago that he was god: Nobody told me, I realized it by myself “.
“In the summer”, the boy continues, “a monster has begun to wake up in me: I started hating everyone. I have always hated everyone and I started to hate even more. “Also on Telegram he had already announced his intentions to” kill a large number of biological junk “.
Finally, Galyaviev claims that he has no parents because “the woman who gave birth to me is not a mother” and “I never called them mom and dad”. The young man had been expelled from the city university in April for accumulated academic debts: he had not attended classes since January.
Putin: “Revise rules for carrying weapons”
The incident has already led to the first consequences with the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, who has asked for a tightening on the rules governing the granting of weapons to citizens.
“The president has ordered urgent development of the type of weapons that can be given to the civilian population, taking into account those used in the Kazan shooting,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, explaining how Putin has returned to Moscow from Sochi to follow the developments of the massacre and sent his condolences to the families involved.
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