Eighteen people have died in an attack at a technical college in the Crimean town of Kerch, with dozens more injured.
According to Russian Investigation Committee, the attack was carried out by 18-year-old student of the college called Vladislav Roslyakov. He later killed himself, with his body found in one of the classrooms.
"The investigation understands that this young man shot people in the college and then committed suicide," reads a statement on the Investigation Committee's website.
While this was enough for the Committee to reclassify the attack from terror to mass murder, some confusion remained about the details of the incident, and if, indeed, the student acted alone.
The Kremlin's anti-terror committee confirmed that explosive devices were found at the scene. A police source told RBC media that the attacker left a rucksack in the college canteen. The same source revealed Mr Roslyakov was granted a firearms license on 8 September.
The head of the Crimean administration, Sergei Aksyonov, said that he did act on his own, but gave the wrong age (22). Earlier reports suggested there were other attackers.
Yekaterina Keizo, a journalist working for local media Kerch FM, told The Independent that witnesses spoke of two men entering the building, indicating that one of the killers could still be at large. The director of the Kerch polytechnic college, Olga Grebennikova, who left the college just before the start of the attack, also said that she also understood there were a number of attackers. They "went from classroom to classroom, shooting at students," she said.
Speaking on RBC, fellow students painted a picture of an angry young man "who hated college because of the nasty teachers" and who "hinted" he would "avenge" them.
According to local officials, the vast majority of the dead were students.
In a video recorded by local media, school director Grebennikova said she would also have died had she remained inside: “There are loads of corpses inside. They blew all the windows out, they ran around […] and killed everyone they could find.”
She likened the incident to the 2004 terrorist attack in Beslan, when armed men took over 1000 people hostages, and 334 people died.
Like Beslan, footage from the college depicted a chaotic rescue scene. Images showed bodies carried on stretchers to ambulances, trucks and other public transport vehicles. Journalists reported there were not enough dedicated medical transport vehicles. At one point, stretchers also ran out. The local hospital also experienced a shortage of medical staff, and had appealed to medical students to come in to assist.
Kerch is a port town on the disputed Crimean peninsula. It is notable as the start point of Russia's bridge that connects annexed Crimea to the mainland, and sits at the opening of the Azov sea, which has been a source of tensions between Russia and Ukraine. Crimean officials even pointed a finger of blame at Ukraine, an explanation that always appeared far-fetched.
In the wake of the attack, Crimean authorities closed all educational facilities and announced three days of mourning.
