Investigators say a bomb was detonated in the canteen around lunchtime, then gunmen went through the building killing anyone they saw
At least 13 people were killed when gunmen burst into a college in the Black Sea region of Crimea, set off a bomb in the cafeteria then went through the building shooting anyone they saw, officials and the college’s director said on Wednesday.
Law enforcement officials said they were treating the incident at Kerch Polytechnic College as a terror attack. Video footage from the scene showed armoured personnel carriers and military tucks lined up on the approach to the college, in the Crimean city of Kerch.
A local said officials had told parents to collect their children from schools and kindergartens in the city for their safety.
Olga Grebennikova, the college’s director, told Crimean media outlets outside the college that someone had blown themselves up inside the college and the bodies of children were everywhere.
Students and staff were among those killed, she said.
The Investigative Committee, the law enforcement body that deals with major crimes, said initial information was that an explosive device packed with shrapnel had gone off in the cafeteria of the college at about lunchtime.
It said in a statement around 50 people were wounded, many of whom were teenagers.
An employee at a hospital in Kerch was quoted as saying 18 people had already been admitted with injuries from the explosion, and that doctors were expecting around 50 more wounded to be brought in.
“There are already lots of people in the emergency room, and in the operating theatre,” the TASS news agency quoted the employee as saying.
Photographs from the scene of the blast posted by local media outlet Kerch. FM showed the ground floor windows of the two-storey building had been blown out and debris was lying on the ground outside.
Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2104. Kerch is the landing point and namesake of a bridge that opened earlier this year to connect Crimea to Russia. Security on the bridge was tightened after the attack, RIA Novosti reported.
Additional reporting by Bloomberg
