Austria school shooting live updates: 'Multiple people dead' after gunman opens fire as elite Cobra polite unit race to scene
At least five people have reportedly been killed at a school in Austria after a gunman opened fire inside the building this morning.
Austrian police confirmed that a major operation was underway in the city of Graz on Tuesday morning.
The operation began at 10am after gunshots were heard inside the school, police said.
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Criminals turn to drones and social media to sell illegal cigarettes
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Sky News
an hour ago
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'A dark day in Austria's history': 10 killed in school shooting - with one teenager spared because he was off sick for the day
Students and adults are among 10 victims who were killed after a gunman opened fire at a secondary school in the Austrian city of Graz. Interior minister Gerhard Karner said earlier that a further 12 people were injured in the shooting at the BORG Dreierschützengasse high school in Austria's second-biggest city. He gave the figure before it was confirmed that a person in hospital with life-threatening injuries had become the 10th person to die. It is not clear if this reduces the number of those injured to 11. The interior minister also said the suspect was a former pupil of the school who didn't finish his studies. Police have confirmed that the 21-year-old Austrian gunman was found dead in the toilets of the school after the shootings and was operating alone. Nobody can believe it happened here When 'M' - a 16-year-old student - saw mentions of a school shooting on his phone, he assumed it was yet another tragedy in the US. But it couldn't have been closer to home. Three students in his class had been killed - his own cousin had been shot in the shoulder. M only escaped the carnage because he was off school sick. After the terror and panic of Tuesday morning, an eerie calm has settled over these streets. People stand in silence staring past the wire fence that guards the school - through the windows you can see the still-lit corridors; a handful of police officers standing guard outside the main entrance. There are, no doubt, many more police inside the school - out of our view, still gathering evidence - trying to answer the question that's on everyone's minds: why? Why did a former student take two guns - seemingly legally owned - into his former classrooms, and open fire? It's reported a 'farewell letter' was found by authorities at the gunman's home. But can that really provide answers to such a senseless loss of young life? M knows he will never feel secure walking through these corridors again, in a school and town he said was always quiet and safe. Austria has one of the highest rates of gun ownership in Europe, but mass shootings have been - before Tuesday - extremely rare. A national conversation about its gun laws and ownership loopholes must surely follow these coming days of national mourning. Authorities say the suspect had two weapons - reported to be a shotgun and a pistol - which he appeared to have owned legally. Police have said they did not have information about his possible motive. Footage shared online revealed how gunshots and screaming could be heard after the suspect entered the school before opening fire. French education minister Elisabeth Borne has said that one of those who died was a "young fellow citizen" of France. It came as the mother of a child who survived the shooting retold the distressing moment she received a phone call from her son. "My son called me to say he was in school and that he was being shot and that he thought he was going to die," she said. She only found out two hours later that he was still alive. Special forces were among those sent to the school, just under a mile from Graz's historic centre, after a call at 10am local time (9am UK time) on Tuesday. About an hour and half later, police wrote on X that the school had been evacuated and everyone had been taken to a safe meeting point. Police deployed in large numbers, with emergency vehicles guarding the area around the school and with at least one police helicopter flying above. Graz is located in the southeast of the country and about 300,000 people live there. A 'dark day' Austrian Chancellor Christian Stocker said there would be three days of national mourning, with the Austrian flag lowered to half-mast and a national minute of mourning at 10am on Wednesday. He said that it was "a dark day in the history of our country". President Alexander Van der Bellen said that "this horror cannot be captured in words". "These were young people who had their whole lives ahead of them. A teacher who accompanied them on their way," he said. Well-wishers later lit candles and placed them in the main square in Graz city centre on Tuesday night as a tribute to the shooting victims. People were seen quietly reflecting as the city tried to come to terms with the deadly attack. The school where the attack took place had earlier posted a message on Instagram following the tragedy. The message is written in German, the official language of Austria, and translates in English to: "It was a really terrible day that deeply impacted and affected us all. "Let us continue to stand together as a school community and support one another.
The Independent
2 hours ago
- The Independent
Austria school shooting latest: Gunman who killed 10 in Graz was former student who took own life in toilet
A gunman who opened fire and killed 10 people before taking his own life in a school in Austria was a former student of the college, police have confirmed. Authorities said the gunman, a 21-year-old Austrian national, opened fire at the BORG school in Graz just after 10am local time. Interior minister Gerhard Karner said there were six female and three male victims of the shooting, with twelve injured. Some of those injured remain in a serious condition and are being treated in hospital. One of two critically injured adults died, Universitatsklinkum Graz Hospital said, taking the number of people killed to 10. The gunman took his own life in the bathroom at the school, police told a press conference. Mr Karner said that the shooter had licences for his guns and therefore owned them legally. He had attended the school but had not graduated. Austrian chancellor Christian Stocker said there were no words to describe the pain being felt across the country following the attack. 'The school shooting in Graz is a national tragedy that has deeply shaken our entire country,' he said in a statement. Full report | At least 10 dead in Graz school shooting with major police operation underway in Austria 'Dark day' as 10 killed in Austria school shooting Witnesses described chaos as gunman opened fire at school in Graz Jabed Ahmed11 June 2025 03:00 Watch: Gun shots heard in classroom as armed police storm building to rescue students Jabed Ahmed11 June 2025 02:00 Shooting one of the deadliest attack in Austria's postwar history Tuesday's violence appeared to be the deadliest attack in Austria's postwar history. Other attacks in the country include when four people were killed in Vienna in 2020 and the suspect, a sympathizer of the Islamic State group, also died in a shooting that stunned the Austrian capital. More than 20 other people, including a police officer, were wounded. In 2019, a 25-year-old man turned himself into Austrian police after he killed his ex-girlfriend, her family and her new boyfriend in the Alpine resort town of Kitzbuehel. Almost exactly 10 years ago, on 20 June 2015, a man killed three people and injured more than 30 when he drove through a crowd in downtown Graz with an SUV. Jabed Ahmed11 June 2025 01:00 Austria's gun culture Austria has some of the more liberal gun laws in the European Union. Traditionally, many in the Alpine region go hunting, and it's more common to carry a weapon for that purpose than for self-defence. Some weapons, such as rifles and shotguns that must be reloaded manually after each shot, can be purchased in Austria from the age of 18 without a permit. Gun dealers only need to check if there's no weapons ban on the buyer, and the weapon is then added to the central weapons register. Other weapons, such as repeating shotguns or semi-automatic firearms, are more difficult to acquire — buyers need a gun ownership card and a firearms pass. Jabed Ahmed10 June 2025 23:59 Director of Public Security issues more detail on shooting Director General of Public Security Franz Ruf told state broadcaster ORF that victims were found outside and inside the school on various floors, adding the gunman had been armed with both a shotgun and a pistol, both found at the scene. Ruf also told ORF the suspect had left behind a farewell letter, both in analogue and digital form, in which he said goodbye to his parents but gave no indication of a motive, which was still being investigated. Jabed Ahmed10 June 2025 23:00 Everything we know so far about attack which killed 10 and injured 12 Everything we know about the Austrian school shooting that left nine dead Gunman opened fire in school in Graz in one of country's worst ever mass shootings Jabed Ahmed10 June 2025 22:30 Residents hold vigil for victims Jabed Ahmed10 June 2025 21:59 Austria enters three days of mourning Chancellor Christian Stocker has described the attack as 'a dark day in the history of our country'. Speaking at a press conference in Graz, Mr Stocker announced three days of national mourning and called for a minute's silence at 10am (9am BST) on Wednesday. He was joined by senior officials, including Interior Minister Gerhard Karner, as Austria begins to reckon with the scale of the tragedy. Jabed Ahmed10 June 2025 21:29 The shooting happened inside two classrooms, local media reports The Salzburger Nachrichten reported that the attacker opened fire inside two classrooms, one of which he had previously studied in. The newspaper, citing unnamed sources, said he was armed with both a pistol and a shotgun. Police have not confirmed these details, but said the investigation was ongoing. Jabed Ahmed10 June 2025 20:59
