MOSCOW (Reuters) – A gunman wearing a swastika T-shirt opened fire at a school in the Russian city of Izhevsk on Monday, killing 15 people and injuring more than 20, before to kill themselves, said the Russian Investigative Committee.
The assailant, Artem Kazantsev, armed with two pistols and a large amount of ammunition, was in his 30s and has been identified by authorities as a former student of the school in Izhevsk, where the shooting took place. venue.
The Investigative Committee said it was looking into the alleged neo-Nazi ties of the perpetrator.
“Currently, the investigators (…) are carrying out a search of his home and studying the personality of the attacker, his opinions and his environment,” the committee said in a statement. “Verifications are underway regarding his adherence to neo-fascist views and Nazi ideology.”
Investigators released a short video showing the shooter’s body lying on the floor of a classroom, amid overturned furniture and scattered papers. The man was hooded and dressed in black, including a T-shirt displaying a circled red swastika, according to investigators.
The Committee said that of the 24 people injured, all but two were children. Many of them have been operated on, according to the regional governor, Alexander Brechalov.
Alexander Brechalov added that the attacker had been registered in a “psycho-neurological” treatment center.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said President Vladimir Putin “deeply mourns” the deaths. He described the incident as “a terrorist act committed by a person who apparently belongs to a neo-fascist organization or group”.
The official added that doctors, psychologists and neurosurgeons have been sent to Izhevsk, about 970 km east of Moscow.
(Reuters report; French version Kate Entringer and Alizée Degorce, editing by Tangi Salaün)