By our reporter

MOSCOW – Updated at 16:10 GMT on Tuesday 11 May 2012

At least seven school children and one teacher dead, many more wounded, after lone 19-year-old shooter opened fire in a school in Kazan, the capital of Russia’s republic of Tatarstan.

A gunman has attacked a school in the Russian city of Kazan, killing eight people – seven students and a teacher – and leaving 21 other people hospitalised with wounds, Russian officials said.

Rustam Minnikhanov, governor of the Tatarstan republic where Kazan is the capital, said Tuesday that four male and three female eighth-grade students have died in the shooting. Minnikhanov’s press service later added that a teacher was also killed.

“The terrorist has been arrested, (he is) 19 years old. A firearm is registered in his name. Other accomplices haven’t been established, an investigation is underway,” Minnikhanov said after visiting the school, adding that security had been restored to the school.

According to Tatarstan health officials, 21 people were hospitalized with wounds after the attack, including 18 children, six of them in intensive care.

Russia’s state RIA Novosti news agency reported earlier that 11 people had been killed in the Kazan school shooting. There was no way to immediately reconcile the differing death tolls.

Several brutal attacks on schools

Authorities said additional security measures were put into place in all schools in Kazan, a city 700 kilometres east of Moscow.

Police opened a criminal investigation into the shooting. Footage of the school building Tuesday showed dozens of ambulances lined up in front of the entrance.

While school shootings are relatively rare in Russia, there have been several violent attacks on schools in recent years, mostly carried out by students.