At a school in Izhevsk, the capital of the Russian republic of Udmurtia, an attacker killed 15 people, including eleven children, on Monday, according to official sources.

He then shot himself. Two security guards and two teachers are said to be among the dead.

According to official information, 22 children and two adults were wounded.

Investigators quickly confirmed media reports that the perpetrator was wearing a shirt with "Nazi symbolism" and a balaclava.

Investigators later released pictures and a video purported to show the dead attacker with a swastika on his clothing.

It was soon said that the shooter's name was Artyom Kazantsev, that he was born in 1988 and that he himself attended the Izhevsk school that he had attacked.

According to the reports, it bears the number 88. It is now being checked whether the perpetrator "attached to neo-fascist views and Nazi ideology," according to the investigative committee.

Three days of mourning announced

According to the head of the republic, Alexandr Brechalov, Kazantsev was registered with a psychoneurological agency.

According to the Baza Telegram channel, which responds quickly to criminal cases, Kazantsev was armed with two Makarov pistols.

Baza released images of the pistols with tags said to have the names of Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold on them.

The two Americans shot and killed twelve students, a teacher and themselves at Columbine High School in Colorado in 1999.

The Russian word for "hate" is written in red on the magazines of the pistols, which were apparently not used, and each is accompanied by an exclamation mark.

According to the Russian authorities, there is a "terrorist movement" in the country called "Columbine", whose participants "deny generally accepted moral principles and moral values, promote deviant behavior and suicide and violence as a norm of life and as a means to achieve one's goals".

A three-day period of mourning has been declared in Udmurtia.

Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin promised to help the wounded and the families of those killed.

President Vladimir Putin is said to be on vacation at the moment.

His spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said the effectiveness of security measures in Russia's schools should be checked.

Last December, an 18-year-old youth detonated an explosive device at a school in Serpukhov near Moscow, injuring several people.

In September 2021, six people were killed when an armed student attacked a university in Perm in the Urals.

In May 2021, a school graduate in the city of Kazan shot and killed nine people.

There were no tightening of gun laws, as suggested again on Monday in the Duma, the lower house.