Kazan school shooting

On the morning of 11 May 2021, a school shooting and bombing occurred at Gymnasium No. 175 in Kazan, Tatarstan, Russia. The school had 714 students and 70 staff present. Ilnaz Galyaviev, a 19-year-old former student of the school, was stopped at the main entrance by a card-access security system. When a school worker tried to prevent him from entering, he opened fire. The wounded worker triggered a panic alarm at 9:25 a.m., which allowed teachers to lock down classrooms via a radio announcement.

Galyaviev moved through the building, shooting in hallways and killing a teacher on the ground floor, before detonating an improvised explosive device near a first-floor classroom. He then killed a second teacher on the second floor, fired at students on a playground from a classroom window, and entered a third-floor classroom where he killed seven eighth-grade students. Approximately 30 shots were fired in total. He ran out of ammunition and was attempting to leave when law enforcement arrived at 9:33 a.m.; the school was evacuated within twenty minutes. In total, nine people were killed — two teachers (Venera Aizatova and Elvira Ignatyeva) and seven students — and 23 others, including students aged 7 to 15 and three adults, were injured. Some of the wounded were airlifted to Moscow for treatment.

Galyaviev had graduated from the same school in 2017 and had recently been expelled from a Kazan management college. He had no prior criminal record but had reportedly sought treatment for headaches and was diagnosed with encephalopathy in 2020; he denied having serious illness in court. In the months before the attack he obtained a hunting and gun license, purchased a shotgun and ammunition, and built explosive devices in his apartment using instructions found online. On the morning of the attack he posted a photo of himself in a mask reading "GOD," with a caption stating an intent to kill and then shoot himself.

On 12 May 2021, Galyaviev pleaded guilty to the murder of two or more people under Article 105, Part 2 of the Russian Criminal Code. He underwent two forensic psychiatric examinations with conflicting findings; the second found him sane at the time of the offense and diagnosed him with a schizoid personality disorder. In December 2021 he was formally charged on four counts, including murder committed in a generally dangerous way, attempted murder, manufacture and storage of an explosive device, and intentional damage to property. His trial began in November 2022, and investigators concluded no other persons had assisted him. On 13 April 2023, he was sentenced to life imprisonment in a special-regime penal colony. In January 2025, bailiffs began collecting 23 million rubles from Galyaviev to settle victims' claims.

The attack prompted Russian officials, including President Vladimir Putin, to call for tightened gun-control laws, including proposals to raise the minimum age for firearm licenses to 21 and introduce mandatory psychological testing for gun permits.