MOSCOW (AP) — Russia’s top investigative body says it has identified the man who opened fire in a college in a Crimean town, killing 18 people and wounding more than 40.
The Investigative Committee said an 18-year old student identified as Vladislav Roslyakov arrived at the vocational college in Kerch early Wednesday afternoon with a rifle and opened fire. The investigators said all the victims have died of gunshot wounds.
The investigators had earlier put out a statement saying an improvised explosive device went off in the college..
The investigators cited CCTTV footage showing that the man opened fire on people and later killed himself. The investigators said they will now treat the incident as a mass murder and not as a terrorist attack.
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3:40 p.m.
Russian President Vladimir Putin says the attack on a college in Crimea was a tragedy and offered condolences to the victims’ families.
Putin, speaking Wednesday after talks with his visiting Egyptian counterpart Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi in the Black Sea resort of Sochi, said investigators are looking into the circumstances of the attack and its motives.
He promised that the government will do everything necessary to help those wounded.
The top official in Crimea said 18 people were killed and over 40 wounded in Wednesday’s attack on the vocational college in the city of Kerch in eastern Crimea. He said a student of the college was the sole attacker and killed himself.
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3:35 p.m.
The top official in Crimea says 18 people have died and more than 40 have been wounded in an attack on a college in the Black Sea peninsula launched by one of its students.
Sergei Aksyonov, the regional leader in Crimea, said that the student killed himself after the attack. He didn’t name the man, saying only he was a local resident and was acting alone.
Aksyonov’s statement follows Russian officials’ report that an explosive device ripped through the college in Kerch in eastern Crimea in a suspected terrorist attack.
Russian media reported that an unidentified gunman or gunmen attacked the college. Russian officials wouldn’t confirm those reports.
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3:20 p.m.
The top Russian official for Crimea says the attacker at a Crimean vocational college was a student at the school who has killed himself.
The comments by Sergei Aksyonov were the latest in a series of shifting explanations by Russian officials as to what killed 13 people and wounded 50 others Wednesday at the college in the Black Sea city of Kerch.
Aksyonov said on state television that the attacker was a fourth-year student at the vocational school who killed himself after the attack. He didn’t name the man, saying only that he was a local resident.
Russia’s top investigative agency says an explosive device rigged with metal fragments caused the carnage at the school. Yet Russian news media reported that at least some of the victims died in an attack by an unidentified gunman or gunmen.
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2:55 p.m.
Russia’s top investigative agency says an explosive device rigged with metal fragments has killed 13 people at a college in Crimea.
The Russian Investigative Committee’s spokeswoman, Svetlana Petrenko, said the device went off Wednesday in the canteen of a vocational college in the Black Sea city of Kerch. She said most of the victims were students and more than 50 people were injured as a result of the explosion.
Yet Russian news media, however, reported that at least some of the victims died in an attack by an unidentified gunman or gunmen. Russian officials wouldn’t confirm those reports.
Dmitry Peskov, the spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin, told reporters that officials are looking into a possible terrorist attack. He did not elaborate.
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1:50 p.m.
The Kremlin says the blast at a college in Crimea that killed at least 10 people could have been a terror attack.
Authorities say that at least ten people have been killed and more than 50 injured as a result of the explosion at a vocational college in the Black Sea city of Kerch.
Dmitry Peskov, spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin, told reporters that officials are looking into a possible terrorist attack. He did not elaborate.
Peskov said Putin has instructed investigators and intelligence agencies to conduct a thorough probe and offered condolences to the families of the victims.
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1:45 p.m.
Russia’s counter-terrorism agency says the blast that killed 10 people at a college in Crimea was triggered by an explosive device.
The National Anti-Terrorism Committee said in a statement that the blast at the vocational college in the city of Kerch in eastern Crimea was caused by an unidentified explosive device.
It said about 50 others were wounded, but gave no further details.
Earlier, emergency officials said the blast was caused by a gas canister explosion.
The head of Crimea, Sergei Aksyonov, and Russia’s health minister, have headed to the area.
Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, a move that triggered Western sanctions.
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1 p.m.
Russian news agencies say that up to 10 people may have been killed and at least 40 others wounded by a natural gas explosion at a college in Crimea.
The gas canister explosion is said to have occurred Wednesday at the vocational college in the city of Kerch in eastern Crimea, according to local emergency officials.
The Interfax news agency cited local officials as saying up to 10 people might have been killed and about 40 others might have been injured by the blast.
The cause of the explosion wasn’t immediately clear.
Russia has annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, a move that triggered Western sanctions.
