More than a dozen children wounded in a school shooting in central Russia are being transferred to Moscow for further treatment.
Russian health minister Mikhail Murashko revealed a medical evacuation was planned for 13 children and two adults, with three said to be in a critical condition.
A gunman killed 17 people and wounded 24 others on Monday at School No 88 in the city of Izhevsk, 600 miles east of the capital, in the Udmurtia region.
The gunman, identified as Artyom Kazantsev, a 34-year-old former pupil of the school, killed himself after carrying out the attack.
Although no details about his motives have been released, authorities have said he was wearing a black T-shirt emblazoned with “Nazi symbols”.
Officials also revealed he was registered as a patient at a psychiatric facility.
The government of Udmurtia said 11 children were among the 17 killed in the shooting, while 22 of the 24 left wounded were children.
Chinese and Russian warships ships spotted off Alaskan island
Ukraine war: Images show 10 miles of queues as Russians flee Vladimir Putin’s call-up to fight
Nord Stream 2 leak a ‘danger to ships’ as Denmark issues Baltic Sea warning
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov branded the shooting “a terrorist act” and said President Vladimir Putin had given the relevant authorities all necessary orders.
The ages of pupils at the school ranged from six to 17-years-old.
Russia’s National Guard said Kazantsev used two unregistered, non-lethal handguns adapted to fire real bullets to carry out the attack.
Izhevsk, a city of 640,000, is west of the Ural Mountains in central Russia.
Though school shootings are uncommon in Russia, they have become more frequent in recent years, prompting the government to seek to tighten gun regulations last year.
A year ago, a gunman killed six people in a university in Perm, and months before that, another attacker opened fire at a school in the city of Kazan, killing seven students and two teachers.
In 2018, a student at a college in Russia-annexed Crimea killed 20 students and himself.
