Former Pupil Kills Nine, Then Himself in Shooting at Austrian School

Asharq Al-Awsat

2 days ago

A former pupil killed nine 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 were male and three were female, and that 12 people were also injured. He gave no further details to identify the victims, but Austrian media said most were pupils.
The motive for an attack that shocked the nation was not yet known. But police said they assumed the 21-year-old Austrian shooter, who was found dead in a bathroom, was operating alone when he entered the school with two guns and opened fire.
"The rampage at a school in Graz is a national tragedy that has deeply shaken our entire country," Austrian Chancellor Christian Stocker said, calling 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."
Stocker travelled to Graz where, at a press conference alongside other officials including Karner, he announced three days of national mourning, with a minute's silence to be held at 10 a.m. (0800 GMT) on Wednesday.
At the scene, police had set up a perimeter a few hundred meters away from the school, barring access routes with police cars after evacuating the school. Relatives of the victims and pupils were being cared for.
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.
'DARK HOUR'
Police were called to the scene at around 10 a.m. after shots were heard at the school. Police and ambulances were on the scene in minutes.
"It is not yet possible to provide any information about the motive. 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 post-war history, describing such shootings as rare compared to some countries including the United States.
"I am deeply shaken that young people were torn from their lives so abruptly," German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, one of a number of foreign leaders who expressed shock at the shooting, said in a message to 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 persons, according to the Small Arms Survey, an independent research project.
Four people were killed and 22 injured when a convicted extremist went on a shooting spree in the center of Vienna in 2020. In November 1997, a 36-year-old mechanic shot dead six people in the town of Mauterndorf before killing himself.