Moscow: A Russian student went on a shooting spree in a college in southern Russia, killing a security guard and wounding three others, officials said Wednesday.
School and university shootings used to be rare in Russia, but have become more common, with a spike in attacks in recent months.
Russian police said a student opened fire at a technical college in the city of Anapa, on the Black Sea and near Moscow-annexed Crimea, with investigators saying the attacker had been detained.
The local governor, Veniamin Kondratyev, said one person was killed.
“A security guard, who was the first to take a blow. He reacted quickly and called law enforcement agencies,” Kondratyev, the governor of the Krasnodar region where Anapa is located, said.
“He prevented the attacker from entering the technical college,” he added.
Kondratyev said two people suffered “moderate injuries” and that the number of victims was still being clarified.
“This is a horrific crime,” he said.
Unverified footage on social media showed a youth wearing black and holding his hands up near the entrance of the college, which was decorated in images of the Soviet victory against the Nazis.
This month, Russia reported a knife attack in a Urals university, a knife attack in a Siberian school by a schoolgirl and an air-gun attack by a schoolboy in central Russia.
The Anapa attack came a day after the head of Russia’s powerful FSB security service, Alexander Bortnikov, called on regional leaders to do more to prevent school violence after the spike in attacks.
Russian state media reported Bortnikov told a session of the National Anti-Terrorism Committee that “preventative measures among young people” were not enough, warning that “the enemy” was looking to exploit youths on social media.
Russian schools have become especially targeted by the Kremlin’s state propaganda on its Ukraine military campaign.
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