Last Updated Oct 17, 2018 9:10 AM EDT
MOSCOW — A student at a vocational college in Russian-annexed Crimea allegedly took his own life after detonating an explosive device on Wednesday that killed at least 18 people and injured dozens more. Russian officials called it a possible terrorist attack.
The National Anti-Terrorism Committee said in a statement that the blast at the college, in the city of Kerch in eastern Crimea, was caused by an explosive device. The committee’s spokesman Andrei Przhezdomsky said bomb technicians were inspecting the building for other explosive devices.
Sergei Melikov, a deputy chief of the Russian National Guard, said the explosive device was homemade. Russia’s Investigative Committee, the nation’s top investigative agency, said the device that went off at the college’s canteen was rigged with shrapnel.
Sergei Aksyonov, Moscow’s senior official in Crimea, said 18 people were killed and more than 40 others injured. Most of the victims were students but some college staff were among the casualties. Russia’s national investigative committee identified the suspect as an 18-year-old student named Vladislav Roslyakov.
“He shot himself. He was a Year Four student at the college,” Aksyonov said, according to the BBC. “The killer’s body was found in the library on the second floor… It’s a horrible tragedy. We don’t know what caused it.”
Russia unilaterally annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, a move that triggered Western sanctions.
The Reuters news agency said Olga Grebennikova, the college’s director, had told Crimean news outlets that gunmen entered the building and deliberately fired on students and blew up explosive devices. Aksyonov denied those details however, saying there had been no gunfire and the situation in Kerch was generally calm. But Russian state media later brought back the possibility that the attack involved firearms, saying some of the victims had gunshot wounds.
Russia’s National Anti-Terrorism Committee said it was also looking into the possibility that there could have been more than one person involved in the attack, or at least the planning of it.
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, told reporters that officials were looking into a possible terrorist attack. He did not elaborate.
Peskov said Putin has instructed investigators and intelligence agencies to conduct a thorough probe and offered condolences to the families of the victims.
Emergency officials said earlier that the blast had been caused by a gas canister explosion.
Aksyonov, and Russia’s Health Minister Veronika Skvortsova headed to the area to coordinate assistance to those injured.
The U.S. is still supporting its ally Ukraine in a war against Russian-backed militants in the east of the country. Ukrainian rebels, backed by Russia, have seized swathes of territory in eastern Ukraine since 2014. The conflict has killed 10,000 people by some counts.
© 2018 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
