College assault kills 18 in Crimea
BBC
At least 18 people have been killed and dozens more wounded in an attack at a college in Russian-annexed Crimea, reports BBC.
Officials initially said an unidentified explosive device detonated, but now say all the victims died of gunshot wounds at the technical college in Kerch.
Russian investigators said an 18-year-old student blamed for the attack had killed himself.
Russia seized Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 in a widely criticised move.
The annexation followed a disputed vote that was condemned by many Western powers.
The alleged perpetrator of the college attack has been identified as Vladislav Roslyakov, who is said to have opened fire on those in the building. Forty people were injured. Russias RBC TV interviewed a friend who said he hated the technical school very much.
The incident had initially been described as a terrorist act, but Russias investigative committee has now reclassified it as mass murder.
President Vladimir Putin described it as a tragic event and expressed condolences to the victims relatives.
A local official said most of the victims were students of the technical college, which is a vocational school for 850 teenagers.
A major emergency response operation launched as the victims were taken to hospitals.
Four military planes were ready to evacuate the wounded and military hospital facilities were ready to accept victims if necessary, Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said.
Investigators had at first released a statement saying an explosive device filled with metal objects had detonated in the dining area.
In earlier reaction, the director of the college, who was not at the scene at the time of the attack, told Russian media that unknown armed men had broken into the building. She compared it to the school siege of Beslan in 2004, during which about 330 people died.
Reuters news agency said that schools and pre-schools were being evacuated in the city.
Kerch is situated at the point where Russia built a bridge between the Crimean peninsula and Russia.
Relations between Russia and Ukraine remain strained by the Crimea annexation and a continuing conflict involving Russia-backed rebels in eastern Ukraine.
The speaker of the Russia-backed Crimean parliament, Vladimir Konstantinov, suggested Kiev may have been behind the attack, saying the entire evil inflicted on the land of Crimea is coming from the official Ukrainian authorities.
EA
