Deadly gun attack at Russian school Transcript

Speaker 1: (00:00)
A gunman has opened fire at a school in Russia, killing at least nine people, five of them children. Two teachers and two security guards were also shot dead. Investigators said at least 20 others had been injured during the shooting at a school in the city of Izhevsk in the west Central Russia area. Local officials say the government’s body was later found. He’s believed to have killed himself. His motive remains unknown. Let’s speak to the BBC’s Sergei Goryashko. Sergei, do we have any further information on this?

Sergei Goryashko: (00:33)
Well, according to the local media, we have some updates on the number of victims. There are seven children dead, and seven people are also dead. All in all, it’s 14 victims and also dozens of children and teachers from the school are in hospital, in intensive care now. This one of the deadliest attacks of gunman on Russian schools, as they have already happened before, but according to the number of victims, this is one of the worst.

Speaker 1: (01:11)
And there is no official known motive as yet. Is that right?

Sergei Goryashko: (01:15)
There were some unofficial reports that this was a white supremacist, some neo-Nazi guy. But actually all we know, barely for sure, that this person was in his twenties and he used two Makarov pistols to carry out his attacks, so it does not look like other attacks on Russian schools. In those cases, the perpetrators used just officially purchased weapons, and you cannot purchase officially a pistol in Russia. So this is another question, where did this person get his weapon to carry out this attack?

Speaker 1: (01:59)
And what sort of area is this where this attack happened? How populated is it? What’s the population like?

Sergei Goryashko: (02:07)
This is quite a big city of Izhevsk. There’s actually a military plant there where Kalashnikov weapons are produced, and this is quite a big city, the capital of Udmurtia region, so a quiet place, relatively quiet place. Nothing like that has ever happened there before. Still, as we have seen in the last five years, those attack happens sporadically. So once a year or twice a year, there is a gunman who enters a school and opens fire, kills pupils and teachers. And in most of the cases, there’s no clear motive or explanation of why it has been happening. As in some cases, the perpetrator takes his own life as well, and this has happened in Izhevsk also.

Speaker 1: (03:09)
We’re just hearing, Sergei, the TASS news agency’s now reporting that 13 have now died after that shooting. We know, of course, that there were a number of injuries. How secure are schools generally across Russia?

Sergei Goryashko: (03:24)
Every time when an attack on a school happens, when a gunman enters a school and opens fire, there are talks among the defense ministries, among the Ministry of Interior, the National Guard, which is responsible for the weapons in Russia, that the schools should be more secure, that there is a need of high security at schools and probably the guardman should have weapons as well. But every time, actually nothing like that happens and the attack happens again. Sometimes there’s a guard in school, but he doesn’t have a weapon on him, and it makes easier for a perpetrator to enter the building and to carry out his attack.

Speaker 1: (04:19)
Okay, we’ll have to do that. Sergei Goryashko, thank you very much indeed. Thank you.