A student shot 17 people dead and injured at least 40 before killing himself in a gun massacre today.
The 18-year-old is also thought to have triggered a homemade nail-bomb in the canteen, which reportedly blew out the windows but did not kill anyone.
A video shows terrified students screaming and fleeing from the attack, as the sound of multiple gunshots can be heard.
It is believed that the teenager obtained his gun with a hunting licence.
Student Semyon Gavrilov said: “I looked outside of the classroom and there was a guy with a gun and shooting everyone.
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“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.”
Officials previously said the death toll was 18, but the Committee revised this to 17.
Another witness 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. There was a lot of them, but I can’t tell how many.”
Police initially believed the nail-bomb blast was a gas explosion, before saying they suspected it was a terror attack.
Investigators have now said they believe the attack was a mass murder, carried out by a former student who killed himself.
All the victims died as a result of gunshot wounds.
Emergency services raced to the scene in the city of Kerch, with up to 70 survivors being rushed to nearby hospitals, many with serious injuries.
Troops with armoured personnel carriers and machine guns were sent to the scene.
Witnesses suggested there may have been gunfire and attempts to take hostages prior to the explosion which ripped through the polytechnic’s cafeteria.
College Director Olga Grebennikova said: “They broke in with some explosive packages, then rifles. They were killing everyone they could find, those they could see.”
Vladimir Konstantinov, speaker for the Crimean Parliament, said: “The entire evil inflicted on the land of Crimea is coming from the official Ukrainian authorities.”
Crimea was annexed by Russia from Ukraine in 2014. Providing security to the peninsula has been a priority for Moscow.