MOSCOW, Nov 14 — A 19-year-old student in Russia’s Far East opened fire in his college this morning, killing one classmate and injuring three other people before shooting himself, investigators said.

The male student in a construction college in the town of Blagoveshchensk "murdered his classmate and wounded three using a rifle registered to him,” the Investigative Committee of far-eastern Amur region said.

"During (police) attempts to apprehend him, he shot himself dead,” the investigators said.

A local woman told local AmurObl television that the attacker managed to go past security with his weapon. "I don’t know how he could do that,” she said, adding that it was the shooter’s friend who was killed.

Three probes were launched into the incident, including the murder probe as well as possible negligence by officials.

The victim was 19 while the injured students ranged from 17 to 20 years old and were hospitalised.

All three were males with "multiple gunshot wounds” and had to be operated on, regional health authorities said. The 20-year-old remained in critical condition after his surgery.

The small college in the town centre was surrounded with police cars and some of the streets were closed off today, local website Amur.Info said, adding that the shooter likely used a shotgun in the middle of a lecture attended by 20 people.

Russia has relatively few school shootings due to normally tight security in education facilities and the difficulty of buying firearms legally, although it is possible to register hunting rifles.

Last October a teenage gunman killed 20 people and injured more than 40 at his college in Moscow-annexed Crimea, apparently inspired by the 1999 Columbine high school shooting in the United States. — AFP