Children among several killed in Russia school shooting

The death toll has risen to 15 people, including 11 children, after a shooting at a school in the city of Izhevsk in central Russia, investigators have said.

Monday's attack was the latest in a series of school shootings that have shaken Russia in recent years and came with the country on edge over efforts to mobilise tens of thousands of men to fight in Ukraine.

Russia's Investigative Committee identified the gunman as 34-year-old Artyom Kazantsev, a graduate of the same school, and said he was wearing a black t-shirt bearing "Nazi symbols." No details about his motives have been released.

The Committee said 15 people, including 11 children, were killed in the shooting, and 24 other people, including 22 children, were wounded in the attack.

The governor of Udmurtia, Alexander Brechalov, said the gunman, who he said was registered as a patient at a psychiatric facility, killed himself after the attack.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov described the shooting as “a terrorist act” and said Russian President Vladimir Putin has given all the necessary orders to the relevant authorities.

"President Putin deeply mourns deaths of people and children in the school, where a terrorist act took place," Peskov told reporters.

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Rescuers at the scene

The region's governor Alexander Brechalov confirmed there were "casualties and wounded among children", speaking in a video statement outside school No88 in Izhevsk.

Rescue and medical workers could be seen in the background, some running inside the school with stretchers.

Russia's health ministry said "14 ambulance teams" were working at the scene to help the injured, news agencies.

Brechalov declared a period of mourning in the region to last until Thursday.

A city of around 630,000 people, Izhevsk is the regional capital of Russia's Udmurt Republic, located around 1,000 kilometres (620 miles) east of Moscow.

The attack came just hours after a man had opened fire and severely wounded a recruitment officer at an enlistment centre in Siberia.

Russia's last major school shooting was in April, when an armed man opened fire in a kindergarten in the central Ulyanovsk region, leaving a teacher and two children dead.

The shooter, described as "mentally ill", was later found dead, with officials saying he had shot himself.

And in May 2021, a teenage gunman killed seven children and two adults in the city of Kazan.

READ MORE: Several children killed in school shooting in Russia’s Kazan