A former pupil killed 10 people and then himself at a secondary school in the southern Austrian city of Graz on Tuesday in the worst school shooting in the country’s modern history.
Interior minister Gerhard Karner said six of the victims killed in the school were female and three were male and that 12 people had been injured. A 10th individual, an adult, who had been critically injured later died, the city’s hospital reported.
Mr Karner gave no further details to identify the victims, but Austrian media said most were pupils.
Police said they assumed the 21-year-old Austrian gunman, who was found dead in a bathroom, was operating alone when he entered the school with two guns and opened fire. His motive was not yet known.
“The rampage at a school in Graz is a national tragedy that has deeply shaken our entire country,” said Austrian chancellor Christian Stocker. He called it a “dark day in the history of our country ... There are no words for the pain and grief that we all – all of Austria – are feeling right now.”
Mr Stocker travelled to Graz where, at a press conference alongside other officials including Mr Karner, he announced three days of national mourning, with a minute’s silence to be held at 10am local time on Wednesday.
Austrian newspaper Kronen-Zeitung said police had found a farewell note from the gunman during a search of his home. It did not say what was in the note and police were not immediately available to comment.
The killings caused shock and consternation in Austria, a usually peaceful country unaccustomed to multiple fatalities of the kind that occurred in Graz, its second-biggest city.
More than 300 police officers were called to the scene after shots were heard at about 10am at the school where pupils aged 15 and above attend. Police and ambulances arrived within minutes and authorities cordoned off the school. Relatives of the victims and pupils were being cared for, authorities said.
The Salzburger Nachrichten newspaper said in an unconfirmed report that the suspect had been a victim of bullying.
Armed with a pistol and shotgun, he opened fire on pupils in two classrooms, one of which had once been his own, it said.
Police said investigations into a possible motive were ongoing and that they could not yet provide any information.
“Extensive criminal investigations are still required,” a police spokesperson said.
Julia Ebner, an extremism expert at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue think tank, said the incident appeared to be the worst school shooting in Austria’s postwar history.
Four people were killed and 22 injured when a convicted jihadist went on a shooting rampage in the centre of Vienna in 2020. In November 1997, a 36-year-old mechanic shot dead six people in the town of Mauterndorf before killing himself.
“I am deeply shaken that young people were torn from their lives so abruptly,” said German chancellor Friedrich Merz, one of several foreign leaders who expressed shock at the shooting, in a message to Mr Stocker. “We hope that their loved ones can find comfort in the company of their families and friends in this dark hour.”
Austria has one of the most heavily armed civilian populations in Europe, with an estimated 30 firearms per 100 people, according to the Small Arms Survey, an independent research project.
Machine guns and pump-action guns are banned, while the ownership of revolvers, pistols and semi-automatic weapons is allowed only with official authorisation. Rifles and shotguns are permitted with a firearms licence or a valid hunting licence, or for members of traditional shooting clubs. – Reuters
