A man opened fire on Tuesday at a kindergarten in the Ulyanovsk region of central Russia, killing two children and a teacher before committing suicide, a spokesman for the regional authorities told AFP.
“According to preliminary information, there was shooting at a kindergarten. Two children died, a teacher and the attacker too,” Dmitry Kamal, a spokesman for the Ulyanovsk region, told AFP. .
He said the age of the children is not known but that they are likely “between three and six years old”, adding that the investigators were on the spot.
According to Russian news agencies, citing law enforcement, “the reason for the shooting might be a family dispute.”
Deputy and former governor of the region Sergei Morozov told the Ria Novosti news agency that a young teacher and two children born in 2016 and 2018 had died.
The Baza Telegram channel, known for its ties to the security forces, said the man entered the school during siesta time, armed with a shotgun.
Long very rare, fatal shootings, especially in schools, have tended to become more numerous in Russia in recent years, to the point that President Vladimir Putin is alarmed, seeing it as a phenomenon imported from the United States and a perverse effect. of globalization, which led him to toughen the legislation on the carrying of arms.
In September 2021, an 18-year-old student opened fire with a shotgun at Perm University in the Urals, killing six and wounding around 30.
In May 2021, a 19-year-old shot at his old school, killing seven students and two teachers. The deadliest shooting dates back to October 2018, when a high school student killed 19 people before killing himself at a high school in Kerch, on the annexed Crimean peninsula.