Brutal Shooting At Russia's Perm State University, Eight Dead

Shooting illustration. (Pixabay/Alexas_Photos)

JAKARTA - At least eight people were killed and several others injured when a student opened fire at a university in the Russian city of Perm on Monday, law enforcement officials said.

The gunman died after the shooting at Perm State University, about 1,300 km (800 miles) east of Moscow, Natalia Pechishcheva, a spokeswoman for the university, said.

"He was liquidated", he said. Footage from the scene showed his body prone on the ground outside the building.

Earlier media footage from the scene showed students jumping from first-floor windows to escape the building, landing heavily on the ground before running to safety.

Students built barricades out of chairs to stop shooters from entering their classrooms, they said.

The gunman was identified as a student at the university, said the Investigative Committee, which handles major crimes investigations.

"There were about 60 people in the class. We closed the door and barricaded it with chairs", student Semyon Karyakin told Reuters.

Local media identified the gunman as an 18-year-old student who had previously posted a photo of himself on social media posing with a rifle, helmet, and ammunition.

"I've been thinking about this for a long time, it's been years and I realized the time has come to do what I've been dreaming of", he said on the social media account linked to him which was later deleted.

He pointed out that his actions had nothing to do with politics or religion, even though what he did was motivated by hatred.

Separately, launches Sputnik News, Russian President Vladimir Putin has been notified of the shooting at Perm State University and has expressed his condolences, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

Meanwhile, Russian Prime Minister, Mikhail Mishustin, knocked the head of the Ministry of Education and Science to go to the city of Perm following the shooting incident.

To note, Russia has strict limits on the possession of civilian firearms, but several categories of weapons are available for purchase for hunting, self-defense or sport, once the prospective owner has passed the test and met other requirements.

The shooting is the latest in a series of shootings in Red Bear Country. Earlier this year a teenage gunman opened fire on a school in the city of Kazan in May, killing nine people and injuring many more.

It was Russia's deadliest school shooting since 2018 when a student at a college in Russia's annexed Crimea killed 20 people before pointing his gun at himself.

In anticipation, Russian authorities raised the legal age for buying firearms from 18 to 21 after the Kazan shootings, but the new law has not yet taken effect.