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Swastika-wearing gunman kills 15, wounds 24 in school shooting in Russia

Eleven children were among the dead in the attack in Izhevsk, about 600 miles east of Moscow, officials said.
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A swastika-clad gunman opened fire at a school in central Russia on Monday, killing at least 15 people, 11 of them children, before he turned the gun on himself, authorities said.

Another 24 people, 22 children and two adults, were wounded in the attack on School No. 88 in Izhevsk, the capital of Udmurtia, about 600 miles east of Moscow, Russia’s Investigative Committee said.

The gunman was identified as Artem Kazantsev, 34. Udmurtia Gov. Alexander Brechalov said he was registered as a patient at a psychiatric facility.

The Investigative Committee released video purporting to show the gunman’s body in a classroom. He appeared to be wearing nearly all black, including a balaclava covering his face and a T-shirt with a red swastika drawn on it. 

The video also showed the word "hate" written in Russian on all the gun clips.

“I express my deep, sincere condolences to the relatives and friends of those who died as a result of the cynical and ruthless attack on the school in Izhevsk,” Investigative Committee Chairman Alexander Bastrykin said in a statement.

“The monstrous crime claimed the lives of children, including very young ones, and adults. This is a terrible tragedy, a heavy loss for all of us.” 

The gunman was armed with two pistols and an additional large supply of ammunition, the Russian state news agency Tass reported.

Monday’s attack was the latest in several recent school shootings in Russia.

Seven children and two adults were gunned down in May last year in an attack in Kazan.

And in April, a man killed two children and a teacher at a kindergarten in Veshkayma, a town in the central Ulyanovsk region, before he died by suicide.