MOSCOW — Gunfire and explosions erupted at a school in central Russia on Tuesday, killing seven students and two school employees, according to witnesses and officials who blamed a teenager for the rare mass shooting in the country. Within hours, President Vladimir V. Putin said he had ordered a tightening of Russia’s already restrictive laws on civilian gun ownership, a move that is likely to be implemented in the country’s top-down political system. “The thing is that firearms, which are used as assault rifles and similar weapons in certain countries, are sometimes registered as hunting guns,” said the Kremlin spokesman, Dmitri S. Peskov. “The Russian National Guard will urgently consider the issue.”In a scene of mayhem captured on cellphone videos, students jumped from windows and ran as shots rang out, and the police and ambulances raced to the school in Kazan, a provincial capital about 450 miles east of Moscow.

Source: New York Times May 11, 2021 09:03 UTC