Blast in Crimea college a terrorist attack, says Russian investigative committee

A deadly blast rocked the polytechic college in Kerch, Crimea, on Wednesday leaving at least 18 people dead and 50 more injured, according to the Crimean health ministry. The Russian National Anti-terrorism Committee (NAC) said that an unidentified explosive device had been detonated in the college.

The Russian Investigative Committee has classified the blast as a terrorist attack. However, initial examination of bodies of those killed in Crimean college showed they died from gunshot wounds.

According to Crimea head Sergey Aksyonov, the organizer of the terrorist attack on the college killed himself. "A student of the same educational institution, 22 years old, was in his fourth year," Aksyonov said on the Rossiya 24 television channel, adding that the young man was a resident of Kerch, and that after the blast he killed himself.

"Criminal proceedings were instituted under article 205 of the Russian Criminal Code (terrorist attack) following the explosion in a Kerch college . According to preliminary data, an unidentified explosive device, filled with metal objects, was detonated in the canteen of the polytechnic college today," Russian Investigative Committee spokeswoman Svetlana Petrenko said.

She added that investigators had yet to verify information about the explosion victims, noting that the majority of them were teenagers. "Investigators began to question witnesses and eyewitnesses, they are examining CCTV footage," Petrenko said.