At least 20 people were killed and dozens injured at a college in the Black Sea region of Crimea on Wednesday when a student went through the building shooting fellow students before killing himself. Russia's National Guard reported that an explosive device was detonated during the attack.
Many of the victims were teenage students who suffered shrapnel and bullet wounds.
The Russian Health Ministry later said 21 people had died in the attack.
Eighteen-year-old Vladislav Roslyakov, the reported shooter, turned up at the college in the city of Kerch at around noon on Wednesday carrying a firearm and began shooting, investigators said. His body was later found in the college with what they said were self-inflicted gunshot wounds.
There were no immediate clues as to his motive in mounting the attack, which recalled similar shooting sprees carried out by students in U.S. schools.
Here’s what we know so far:
The victims
* Crimean authorities published a list of 20 victims who were killed in the attack as of Thursday morning.
* The list says 15 of those killed were students; it did not include Roslyakov’s name.
* Six victims were under the age of 18.
* As of Thursday afternoon, the Russian Health Ministry said 21 people had died in the attack.
* The victims will be buried in a ceremony on Friday.
* Some of the wounded have been transferred to hospitals in Moscow, Krasnodar region and the Crimean city of Simferopol.
* Most of those wounded in the attack suffered shrapnel wounds from an explosive device, Russia’s health minister said.
* Moscow-backed Crimean leader Sergei Aksyonov promised 1 million rubles to the victims’ families and half a million to those of the wounded.
The response
* Security forces arrived at the scene within 5 minutes of the attack after an elderly woman posted at the entrance pressed the alarm, a private security company said.
* Lawmakers in Ukraine, which Western nations continue to recognize as Crimea’s legal authority since Russia annexed the peninsula in 2014, opened Thursday’s session with a minute of silence.
* Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and Russian President Vladimir Putin have separately expressed condolences on Wednesday.
* Russian National Guard troops have been deployed at schools and kindergartens across the city.
* The college will reopen on Monday, Oct. 22, to show that “no one is frightened and life continues,” Aksyonov said.
* Russian lawmakers said they planned to discuss tightening gun control measures to prevent further tragedies.
The shooter
* Roslyakov obtained a gun license on Sept. 8 and bought the firearm with 150 rounds two days ahead of the attack on Monday, Oct. 15, the Ren-TV channel reported, publishing surveillance video of the purchase. Russian legislation sets a minimum age of 21 years for firearms purchases.
* A fellow student said he had dismissed Roslyakov’s expression of hatred toward students at the vocational training school and sympathy toward mass murderers, according to audio published by the Telegram channel Mash. “It would be nice to shoot everyone and kill myself off too,” the unnamed student quoted Roslyakov as saying.
* A second undetonated explosive device was discovered at the scene of the shooting.
* Some of Roslyakov’s fellow students described him as a quiet and reserved teenager.
* Authorities said they will conduct a post-mortem psychiatric evaluation of the shooter.
Reuters contributed reporting to this article.
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