Masked gunmen stormed a Crimean technical college and opened fire killing at least 10 people, according to Russian media reports.
An explosive device ripped through the building resulting in over 70 injuries, Russian anti-terror authorities have confirmed.
Masked gunmen were reported “killing everyone they could find, all those they could see.’
Olga Grebennikova, director of the college in Kerch, said: “They broke in five minutes after I had left…
“They broke in with some explosive packages, then rifles.
“I don’t what else they were opening doors on floor 2 with. They were killing everyone they could find, those they could see."
The limbs of the dead had been ripped off, it was reported.
An employee at a hospital in Kerch was quoted as saying that 18 people had already been admitted with injuries from the explosion, and that doctors are expecting around 50 more wounded people to be brought in.
"There are already lots of people in the emergency room, and in the operating theatre," TASS quoted the employee as saying.
Svetlana Petrenko, from Russia’s Investigative Committee said:
“An unidentified explosive device stuffed with metal items went off at the canteen of the polytechnic college.”
Other reports suggested screws and bolts were in the bomb.
“The number of the victims is being clarified, most of them are teenagers,” she said.
“Bomb technicians are working on the site, once they have finished investigators will study the accident site at the epicentre of the explosion.”
An investigative team including FSB intelligence officers and policed been formed.
“Investigators have started questioning eyewitnesses and witnesses, CCTV footage is being studied.”
A local report said there were not enough ambulances to take away the wounded.
Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: “The President offers deep condolences to those who lost loved ones as a result of the explosion.
“The FSB and the investigating authorities instructed to take immediate steps to establish the causes of the incident.
“The version of the terrorist attack is considered.”
Natalia Kovelskaya from Kerch, said: "My child just phoned.
"His classmate’s sister studies at this college.
"She said that a man with a machine gun got in and started shooting,
"He hit a gas cylinder and there was an explosion."
Student Semyon Gavrilov said: “I looked outside of the classroom and there was a guy with a gun and shooting everyone.
“So I locked myself [in the classroom] hoping he wouldn’t hear me.
“Ten minutes later the police with machine guns arrived.
“I don’t know what happened to the shooter.
“When law enforcement started evacuating students and teachers, I left the classroom too.
“Four windows have been pushed out in the corridor where the explosion was.
“There were bodies of the dead on the floor.
“The walls were charred.”
Photographs from the scene of the blast posted by local media outlet Kerch.FM showed ground floor windows of the two-storey building had been blown out, and debris was lying on the floor outside.
Ambulances and firefighters were at the scene. One person could be seen on a stretcher being carried onto a bus.
The technical college provides vocational training to teenage pupils.
One report on RT said: ‘First there was an explosion at the canteen, and straight after that people with machine guns started running out of toilets.
"They had masks on their faces. It was impossible to understand what nationality they are. T
"There was a lot of them, but I can’t tell how many.
"They were shooting at students and teachers. I don’t think that many people were injured because of shooting,
"I have only seen one or two.
"Those people were also throwing explosing package."
Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimea region in 2014, prompting international condemnation and Western sanctions.
Kerch is the point on the peninsula where a bridge linking Crimea to Russia makes landfall on the Crimean side.
Russian President Vladimir Putin opened the bridge to road traffic in May this year, getting behind the wheel of a truck to drive it across the bridge.
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