Russian school shooting sees 14-year-old girl kill classmate, then herself, and injuring 5 others

A Russian teenager on Thursday shot dead a classmate and injured five others before killing herself in a school in Bryansk near the Ukrainian border, investigators said.

“A 14-year-old girl brought a pump-action shotgun to school, which she used to shoot her classmates. As a result, two died – one of them the shooter – and there are five wounded,” the Investigative Committee said in a statement.

Authorities did not name the shooter, but said the victim was a female classmate in the secondary school in the Bryansk suburb.

Emergency vehicles are seen on the grounds of Gymnasium Number Five following a shooting, in Bryansk on Thursday. Photo: AFP

“The motives behind the crime and all the circumstances are being established,” the Instigative Committee, which probes major crimes, said.

The five wounded had been taken to medical facilities, it said.

Regional governor Alexander Bogomaz called it a “terrible tragedy”.

The news outlet Mash published what it said was a photograph of the dead shooter, sprawled on the floor and dressed all in black. It said she was also armed with a hunting knife.

Together with law enforcement agencies, we are determining the circumstances under which the student was able to obtain and bring a weapon to school

Alexander Bogomaz, regional governor

The photo appeared to show a long-handled knife tucked into her right boot.

The shooting took place at Gymnasium Number Five outside the centre of Bryansk, a city near Ukraine that has been subjected to occasional shelling and drone attacks.

“Together with law enforcement agencies, we are determining the circumstances under which the student was able to obtain and bring a weapon to school,” Bogomaz said.

School shootings are relatively rare in Russia, which has strict gun laws, but have become more common in recent years.

In western Russian city of Izhevsk in September last year, a gunman killed 18 people at a school.

In 2021, a 19-year-old shooter killed nine people in a school in Kazan, in Tatarstan. That same year, a teenager killed six people at a university in the Urals city of Perm.

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