About 20,000 people pay last tributes to victims of Crimea college attack

About 20,000 people have come to Lenin Square in central Kerch on Friday, where a funeral service for the people killed in the attack on a city college is being held, deputy head of the city administration Dilyaver Melgaziyev told TASS.

About 10,000 people were expected to attend the funeral service, according to earlier reports. Kerch’s population is about 150,000.

"About 20,000 [people] have come," the deputy mayor said, noting that the lying-in-state ceremony may be shortened at the request of the bereaved families.

On October 17, a Kerch Polytechnic College student opened fire in the college and set off an explosive device. Twenty people were killed, about 50 were injured, and the attacker committed suicide. The criminal case launched under the "Terror Attack" section was later reclassified under the "Murder" section. Three days of morning were declared in Crimea on October 18.