School Shooting in Russia: Teenage girl kills classmate and herself.
NEWS:
A teenager girl shot and killed a classmate at a school in western Russia before killing herself. The attack took place in the city of Bryansk, near the borders of Ukraine and Belarus, on Thursday morning. Five people were injured in the shooting, one of them seriously, Russian authorities said. The gun used by the girl was registered to her father, a lawmaker said. Police were called to Gym No. 5 in Bryansk at around 09:15 local time (06:15 GMT) on Thursday. Alexey Kuznetsov, Russia’s deputy health minister, said one victim was undergoing surgery. Police say they believe the 14-year-old girl may have been involved in a conflict with classmates. Students, teachers and parents at the school received psychological support, local authorities told journalists. Alexander Khinshtein, a member of the Russian Duma, said on his Telegram account that the girl’s belongings, including a box of sweets, were found during a search of the school. Khinshtein added that one of the reasons for the tragedy was the “negligent attitude” towards the storage of the weapon. Russia has strict laws regarding weapons, which need to be stored in a special safe, accessible only to the legal owner of the weapon. It must be inspected regularly by the police. Russian news agency RIA said students barricaded themselves in the classroom when they heard shots being fired. “The boys barricaded the door with their desks, one girl called the police, the teacher called everyone else,” said one of the girls at the school, citing RIA. Bryansk region governor Alexander Bogomaz called the shooting a “terrible tragedy.” There have been several school shootings in Russia in recent years, although Thursday’s incident is believed to be the first involving a female shooter. In 2021, a 19-year-old killed seven children and two adults at a school in Kazan. The following year, 18 people were killed at a school in Udmurtia.
