Local police report at least 13 people dead, 21 more wounded after gunman opens fire at school in Russia’s Izhevsk

Details are still being released about the nature of the shooting. (AP Photo )

At least 13 people have been killed and 21 more wounded after a gunman opened fire at a school in the Russian city of Izhevsk.

Russian officials said the 34-year-old gunman was a former pupil of the school.

They said the gunman had killed himself after the incident, with the death toll initially reported as six.

Russia’s investigative committee said the victims included seven school children, two teachers and two security guards.

They said those wounded were 14 children and seven adults.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov described the shooting as “a terrorist act” and said President Vladimir Putin has given all the necessary orders to the relevant authorities.

“President Putin deeply mourns deaths of people and children in the school, where a terrorist act took place,” Mr Peskov told reporters.

The region’s governor, Alexander Brechalov, said he had arrived at the city’s School No. 88.

Security services and ambulance teams were present, he said in a statement on the Telegram messenger app.

The school educates children between grades 1 and 11.

It has been evacuated and the area around it has been fenced off, the governor said.

According to Russia’s National Guard, the gunman used two non-lethal handguns adapted to fire real bullets.

Izhevsk, a city of 640,000, is located west of the Ural mountains in central Russia.

Russia has seen several school shootings in recent years.

In May 2021, a teenage gunman killed seven children and two adults in the city of Kazan.

In April 2022, an armed man killed two children and a teacher at a kindergarten in the central Ulyanovsk region before he died by suicide.

Reuters/AP