SATURDAY, JULY 27, 2024
Team Herald
In a devastating incident on Thursday, a 14-year-old girl shot and killed a fellow pupil while injuring five others at a school in Bryansk, Russia, before taking her own life, officials reported.
According to the preliminary investigation by Russia's Investigative Committee, the teenager brought a pump-action shotgun to school and opened fire on her classmates. The motive behind the tragic incident is yet to be determined.
Regional governor Alexander Bogomaz expressed his sorrow, describing the event as a "terrible tragedy." The five injured individuals, all children, sustained mild to moderate injuries.
Despite strict gun control measures in Russia, the authorities are now working to understand how the student acquired and brought a weapon into the school. Bryansk, located in a region that has experienced cross-border tensions due to the conflict with Ukraine, has seen the formation of self-defence units encouraged by Moscow.
Governor Bogomaz emphasized the need for a thorough investigation into the circumstances surrounding the student's access to the weapon.
This tragic event adds to a series of school shootings in Russia in recent years. In 2018, an 18-year-old student perpetrated a mass shooting at a college in Russian-occupied Crimea, resulting in the deaths of 20 people, mostly fellow pupils. Another incident occurred in September of last year, where a gunman, adorned with a swastika on his t-shirt, killed 15 people, including 11 children, at a school in Izhevsk, before taking his own life.
