Russia school shooting: 14-year-old girl kills a friend before committing suicide

A teenage girl has opened fire at a school in Bryansk, a city in southwest Russia, killing one of her classmates, authorities say. 

Investigators say the girl then took her own life. 

“A 14-year-old girl came to school with a shotgun, shooting at her classmates” and killing one of them, according to the statement from the Investigative Committee of Russia.

According to the Bryansk police, the shooter later “committed suicide”. Five people were injured.

“The motives and circumstances” of the tragedy are still to be established, police say.

“A terrible tragedy occurred today in school number 5 in Bryansk. One of the students brought a gun with her into the school,” the regional governor, Alexandre Bogomaz, wrote on Telegram.

According to him, all five injured and hospitalised are children.

Once extremely rare, fatal shootings – particularly in schools – have become more common in Russia in recent years.

President Vladimir Putin has spoken out about it, saying it is a phenomenon imported from the United States and a perverse effect of globalisation.

As a result, legislation on the carrying of weapons has been toughened up recently.