Today, October 17th 2018, a shooting at a technical college in Kerch, Crimea, left at least 18 dead and a further 40 wounded.
Initial reports suggested the casualties were caused by a gas explosion or homemade bomb. However, the most recent reports confirm the attack was a school shooting.
Most the victims are teenage students at the technical college, with the shooter amongst the dead. The 18 year-old is reported to have run through the school firing at students before shooting himself.
Kerch is situated at the point where Russia built a bridge between Russia and Crimea. Crimea is officially part of Ukraine but was seized by Russia in 2014. Conflict between Ukraine and Russian-backed separatists is also on-going in Ukraine’s Donbas.
Action on Armed Violence (AOAV) monitors civilian casualties from explosive violence reported in English-language media sources worldwide.
Between 2014 and 2017, AOAV recorded 3,875 casualties from explosive violence. Of these, 64% (2,462) have been civilians.
Whilst the vast majority of civilian casualties have been caused by shelling (2,216 or 90%), 50 civilian casualties have been recorded from IEDs and 29 from mines.
In the first nine months of 2018, AOAV has recorded 93 civilian casualties from explosive violence in Ukraine, including 24 from IEDs.
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