Nine dead in high school shooting in Russia

At least nine people were killed after shooting broke out Tuesday at a high school in the central Russian city of Kazan, local news agencies reported.

Citing local sources, agencies reported that two people had opened fire at School No. 175 in Kazan, the capital of Russia’s republic of Tatarstan.

Interfax reported that one of the attackers, a 17-year-old, had been detained but that a second assailant was still inside the school building.

It said eight students and one teacher had been killed and that police had sealed off the fourth floor of the school and were attempting to detain the second attacker.

Tatarstan President Rustam Minnikhanov had arrived at the scene, agencies reported.

Images broadcast on state television from the scene showed dozens of people outside the school with fire services and police vehicles lining nearby streets.

“I was in class, I first heard an explosion, then gunshots,” TASS quoted a teacher as saying.

Another source cited by the RIA Novosti agency said they had heard an explosion and could see smoke rising from the building.

Russia has relatively few school shootings due to normally tight security in education facilities and the difficulty of buying firearms legally, although it is possible to register hunting rifles.