Russia Several dead after a shooting at a kindergarten

Russia: Several dead after a shooting at a kindergarten

This shooting took place in the Ulyanovsk region in the center of the country.

A man opened fire at a kindergarten on Tuesday, killing two children and a teacher before committing suicide in the Ulyanovsk region of central Russia, regional authorities said.

“A tragedy happened in the Riabinka kindergarten in Vechkaima: two children and a teacher died, and another teacher was injured,” regional governor Alexei Rousskikh wrote on his Telegram account.

“An unidentified man armed with a firearm broke into the kindergarten in Vechkaima village during siesta time and killed three people, including two children,” according to the regional Ministry of Education, which specifies that “the motive for the crime is still under investigation.” must become “.

Kremlin Human Rights Commissioner Tatiana Moskalkova identified the shooter as Rouslan Akhtyamov, a 26-year-old mentally ill man.

Killed a girl and a boy

The children killed are a girl and a boy, born in 2016 and 2017, she added. After killing his victims, the man “shot himself (a bullet) in the face” with a shotgun belonging to someone else, Ms Moskalkova added on Telegram.

The owner of the rifle was soon found dead, according to deputy regional governor Alexander Korobko.

The assassin had “no relation” to the victims, according to local human rights officer Sergey Lulkov, quoted by the Interfax news agency.

More frequent shootings

Once extremely rare, fatal shootings, particularly in schools, have tended to increase in Russia in recent years, alarming President Vladimir Putin, who sees it as a phenomenon imported from the United States and a perverse effect of globalization. which prompted him to tighten legislation on carrying guns.

In September 2021, an 18-year-old student opened fire with a shotgun at Perm University in the Urals, killing six and injuring about 30. In May 2021, a 19-year-old shot his old school, killing seven students and two teachers.

The deadliest shooting dates back to October 2018, when a high school student killed 19 people before committing suicide at a high school in Kerch, on the annexed Crimea peninsula.