A gunman, on Monday morning, opened fire with a hunting rifle in the campus of a Russian university, in the city of Perm, 700 miles east of Moscow in the Russian Urals. Police arrived relatively quickly, within a few minutes of start of shooting, and were joined by specialist units “within 5-10 minutes.” At least eight deaths and several injuries resulted, even if a non-lethal gun was used. Students and teachers barricaded themselves inside the university building. To escape, some students jumped out of the windows of a building. The gunman, who was identified as a student at the university, 18 year old Timur Bekmansurov ,reportedly acted alone and said he had no political or religious motives. He only intended to do harm to others as he said previously in a social media post. He was detained and shot by police. The Investigative Committee, which probes major crimes in Russia, said 28 people were being treated after the attack at Perm State National Research University.
Video from outside the university showed distressed students fleeing the campus and making phone calls to friends and family. “The President expresses sincere condolences to those who have lost family and loved ones as a result of this incident,” Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. The university, which has 12,000 students enrolled, said about 3,000 people were on the campus at the time of the shooting. Monday’s attack was the second mass shooting on this year in Russia. Investigators said that gunman suffered from a brain disorder, but he was deemed fit to receive a license for the semi-automatic shotgun.
