At least eight people were killed and 28 were injured on Monday after a gunman opened fire at the Perm State University in the Russian city of Perm.
The 18-year-old gunman is a student of the university and had obtained the weapon – a hunting rifle – in May, according to the Russia’s law enforcement agency Investigative Committee.
The gunman has been taken into custody. He sustained injuries while resisting the arrest and was taken to a hospital for treatment, the Investigative Committee said.
There were more than 3,000 students on the campus when the incident took place.
As the gunman opened fire, several students built barricades of chairs to prevent him from entering classrooms.
Videos of the incident showed several students jumping out of windows on the first floor of the university.
Local media reports cited by Reuters said that before the incident, the man had posted a photo of himself on social media posing with a rifle, helmet and ammunition. Reuters could not verify the photo independently.
“I’ve thought about this for a long time, it’s been years, and I realised the time had come to do what I dreamt of,” he reportedly said in the post, which was later taken down.
This is the second shooting incident at a Russian educational institution in six months.
In May, a teenage gunman had opened fire at a school in Kazan city, killing nine people, according to Reuters. After this incident, Russia had raised the legal age for buying fire arms to 21 from 18.
