
Crimea has announced three days of national mourning after a pupil walked into a school and launched a gun and bomb rampage that left 19 dead and 54 injured.

Vladislav Roslyakov, 18, stalked his college halls with a shotgun and let off homemade explosives before killing himself in the school library at Kerch Polytechnic College yesterday.

Twelve people are described as being in a critical condition and three are in comas. Some of the wounded have been operated on for 'massive damage of limbs and internal organs,' Minister of Health of the Russian Federation Veronika Skvortsova said.

The shooter, who is thought to have obtained shotguns and rifles with a hunting licence for which he passed a psychological assessment, set off a homemade nail-bomb in the canteen which blew out the windows but did not kill anyone, according to reports.

Initial reports from the scene described the slaughter as a terror attack before it was reclassified as mass murder.

Shooter: Vladislav Roslyakov, 18, pictured on CCTV stalking his college during the attack which killed at least nineteen

Kerch Polytechnic Vocational School in the city of Kerch, Crimea, is surrounded by mourners last night after nineteen people died

A woman was comforted by a small child at the makeshift memorial near the scene of the shooting in Kerch, Crimea

A distressed woman was seen on her knees in front of the candles at the memorial after the students were killed at school

A young woman lights a candle in the city of Simferopol, Crimea, in memory of the victims of the attack which has so far claimed 18 lives - with the shooter's death making the toll 19

A man and his child at the memorial in downtown Simferopol, Crimea, after school children were gunned down by one of their classmates

A Russian woman cries as she attends a memorial for those killed at the school in Crimea by a student who used bombs and guns to kill

An injured victim lies on a stretcher after the attack in Crimea carried about by a gunman

'A shooting took place after the explosion. The gunman had a hunting gun,' Crimean official Igor Mikhailichenko said.

'This is not a terrorist act. It's a mass killing committed by one scumbag,' Crimean Prime Minister Sergei Aksyonov said on state television.

The leader later declared three days of national mourning as the streets outside the college filled with tributes, candles and flowers, left by distraught members of the local community.

Harrowing pictures from the scene have shown students being dragged onto bloodied stretchers with their clothes torn off from the bomb blast.

So far, only 12 of the 19 dead have been identified, because of the extent of their wounds, it has been reported.

A photograph published on Russian websites appeared to show the body of a young man lying in a pool of blood, resembling the man in the CCTV footage.

Images circulating on social media allegedly show Roslyakov wearing a similar T-shirt to Eric Harris, one of the two killers responsible for the 1999 Columbine High School massacre in the US.

Harris and accomplice Dylan Bennet Klebold were also found dead in their school library.

Further images showed the shooter's bag filled with what appeared to be ten homemade bombs and dozens of shotgun rounds. Russian media has claimed the teenager had 150 bullets with him.

Medics load an injured a young woman onto an ambulance, in Kerch, Crimea, after the mass shooting which killed at least nineteen

Blood soaked adults were at the scene yesterday after at nineteen were killed - most of them believed to be students at this stage

Armed officers were called in to the scene of a fatal attack on a college in the port city of Kerch, Crimea

The boy's father, who has separated from his mother, was last night taken into custody for questioning as police tried to work out a motive for the attack and both parents' homes were searched.

Russian news outlet Izvestia has claimed the father said in his interview his son was 'not sociable' and was 'fond of computer games and weapons' he also said that he had 'no friends'.

Friends said the fourth-year pupil 'hated his studies and vowed revenge on his teachers'.

Describing what happened in the school one female pupil named Margarita said: 'My friend was killed right in front of me. I saw her fall and simply stop moving. I saw boys dropping dead and blood spilling around.'

Video footage showed terrified students running and screaming during the attack on Kerch Polytechnic College which is near a new bridge connecting the region to Russia.

One student, who said there were multiple bomb blasts, said: 'There was a guy with a gun and shooting everyone he could find.' Another added: 'The walls were covered in blood, we climbed the fence to escape.'

Dozens of soldiers rushed to the school around 12pm local time, suspecting a terrorist attack. But Russian police later classified the killing as a mass murder.

Bloody victims, most of whom were teenagers, were taken to hospital in ambulances and minibuses. The director of the college said: 'There were lots of corpses, corpses of kids.'

Similarities have been spotted in the choice of outfit of the shooter (right) and Eric Harris (left) who along with Dylan Bennet Klebold killed 13 people at Columbine High School. Harris and Klebold committed suicide in the library. In Crimea, Vladislav Roslyakov was also found dead in the library

Wounded students were loaded into minibuses after ambulances were dispatched to hospitals with the most seriously injured

Photographs from the scene of the blast showed that the ground floor windows of the two-storey building had been blown out, and that debris was lying on the floor outside

This image obtained by Russian media appeared to show the shooter's ammunition - and ten homemade bombs - on the school floor

This image from the scene appears to show the shooter carried homemade bombs in his bag as he carried out the attack

A bomb was reportedly rigged with 'small screws and studs' which were later found buried in the flesh of the casualties. Pictured: Ambulance crews at the scene

Russia's Investigative Committee identified the attacker as Vladislav Roslyakov. The 18-year-old is pictured here on CCTV

This picture shows the inside of the building which was bombed by an unknown device during the gun and bomb rampage

Video showed terrified students running and screaming during the attack on Kerch Polytechnic College where the shooter was a fourth-year pupil

Crimea regional leader Sergei Aksyonov said on television that the student, a local man acting alone, killed himself after the attack. Pictured: Wounded at the scene

Officials attended the scene as dozens of ambulances and soldiers arrived at the school

Kerch Polytechnic College is close to the Black Sea coast in Crimea. Officials and officers are being brought in from across Russia to investigate

Officers from the The Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation (FSB) have now been called in.

Politicians in Crimea, which Russia seized from Ukraine in 2014, were quick to apportion blame for the attack.

The speaker of the Crimean parliament, Vladimir Konstantinov, suggested Kiev may have been behind the atrocity.

He said: 'The entire evil inflicted on the land of Crimea is coming from the official Ukrainian authorities'.

Close Putin ally senator Franz Klintsevich, a member of the Russian upper house security and defence committee, said: 'I don't think that the hand of ISIS is able to reach Kerch.

'It is all more like a Ukrainian imprint. It could be official structures or crazy nationalists, who are ready to do anything in their hate to Russia.'

But a friend of the shooter told the BBC he 'hated the technical school very much' and had vowed 'revenge' on his teachers.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, at a meeting in the southern Russian resort of Sochi with his Egyptian counterpart, declared a moment's silence for the victims.

'This is a clearly a crime,' he said. 'The motives will be carefully investigated.'

Explosion: The shocking attack at the school in Kerch, Crimea, killed at least ten people and injured 40 others

Russian President Vladimir Putin, at a meeting in the southern Russian resort of Sochi with his Egyptian counterpart, declared a moment's silence for the victims. Pictured: Paramedics at the scene

Students were placed on bloodied stretchers outside the school after the staff described there being 'many corpses'

Soon after the attack, Russian officials said they were investigating the possibility that it was terrorism. Pictured: Soldiers on the scene

Soldiers stand by as flowers are left by mourners at the Great Patriotic War Hero City of Kerch monument in the Alexander Garden

A fire engine arrives on the scene after the horrific shooting at the college in Crimea. Soldiers rushed to the scene at 12pm local time

A Russian woman lays flowers on the monument to the hero-city of Kerch in the Alexander Garden as a sign of mourning for the dead children after the attack

A young woman leaves a candle at the Great Patriotic War Hero City of Kerch monument in the Alexander Garden, for the victims of the attack

This image from video footage shows police and investigators at the site of the attack at a vocational school in Kerch in Crimea

The college is a vocational school for 850 teenagers aged 14 to 18.

Soon after the attack, Russian officials said they were investigating the possibility that it was terrorism.

Troops with armoured personnel carriers were sent to the scene. Parents were told to collect their children from the city's schools and kindergartens for their safety.

However, Russia's Investigative Committee, the state body that investigates major crimes, said later that it was re-classifying the case from terrorism to mass murder.

An employee at Kerch's hospital said dozens of people were being treated for their injuries in the emergency room and in the operating theatre.

Anastasia Yenshina, a 15-year-old student at the college, said she was in a toilet on the ground floor of the building with some friends when she heard the sound of an explosion.

'I came out and there was dust and smoke, I couldn't understand, I'd been deafened,' she said. 'Everyone started running. I did not know what to do. Then they told us to leave the building through the gymnasium.'

Russian President Vladimir Putin, at a meeting in the southern Russian resort of Sochi with his Egyptian counterpart, declared a moment's silence for the victims

Aid: Two police officers are seen helping an injured teenage girl outside the school. The building was left in ruins after the attack

A second pupil at the college, who gave his name as Sergei, said he had taken a few steps out of the building into the street when a first blast went off. Pictured: The scene

'Everyone ran there... I saw a girl lying there. There was a child who was being helped to walk because he could not move on his own.

'The wall was covered in blood. Then everyone started to climb over the fence, and we could still hear explosions. Everyone was scared. People were crying.'

Photographs from the scene of the blast showed that the ground floor windows of the two-storey building had been blown out, and that debris was lying on the floor outside.

Emergency services teams could be seen in the photographs carrying wounded people from the building on makeshift stretchers and loading them on to buses and ambulances.

A second pupil at the college, who gave his name as Sergei, said he had taken a few steps out of the building into the street when the first blast went off. He was hit by debris from the blast and injured in the leg.

Sergei, 15, said he ran to another building, but said he could hear more explosions going off every few seconds. He took cover and after the attack was over, he was taken to hospital in an ambulance.

'I arrived at the hospital, the scene there was awful. They're bringing in people all covered in blood, some with arms missing, some with legs missing.

The attack drew parallels to the 1999 Columbine High School massacre in the US in which 12 pupils and a teacher were killed - with some saying the shooter used it as inspiration.

Witnesses claim masked gunmen entered the high school and shot at several teachers and students from 12pm local time