Austria's gun laws under scrutiny after country's deadliest mass shooting
Austria is in mourning and its gun laws under scrutiny, after what is said to be the country's deadliest mass shooting in peace time. A former student gunned down 10 people at a secondary school before fatally shooting himself. Authorities are trying to determine the motive behind the attack. A local report claims the shooter's suicide note suggested he was a victim of bullying. European leaders say they are shocked and saddened by news of the shooting. Will Denselow reports from Brussels.
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9 hours ago
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Austrian school shooter described as introvert who withdrew from real world
GRAZ: Austrian police on Thursday (Jun 12) described the 21-year-old gunman who carried out the country's worst school shooting as an introvert who had largely retreated into virtual spaces and carefully planned the deadly attack. The shooter, identified by local media as Arthur A., killed 10 people and injured 11 others at his former high school in the southern city of Graz on Tuesday before turning the gun on himself. He died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head in a school bathroom. The rampage, which lasted about seven minutes, sent shockwaves through Austria. Authorities declared three days of national mourning in response to the massacre. PLANNED ATTACK According to police, Arthur A. entered the school with a rucksack, went to a bathroom to prepare for the assault, then emerged wearing a weapons belt, shooting glasses, and a headset. He was armed with a Glock pistol and a sawn-off shotgun. The gunman opened fire at random on the second and third floors of the building, including one classroom where he shot off the lock to gain entry. Most of the victims were reportedly unknown to him, although police said he did know one of the teachers who was killed. Police later recovered a farewell note and video in which the shooter apologised to his family and thanked them, but neither provided a clear motive. Authorities also discovered a non-functional pipe bomb and plans for a bomb attack during a search of his home. INVESTIGATORS LOOK FOR MOTIVE Michael Lohnegger, head of Styria's criminal investigation office, said the attack had been planned in meticulous detail but the motive remains unclear. He said findings so far indicated the man was highly introverted and had a deep interest in online first-person shooter games. "He led an extremely withdrawn life; he didn't want to take part in activities in normal life outside in the real world, he preferred to withdraw into the virtual space," Lohnegger told a press conference. Investigators are also examining whether Arthur A. received any help in preparing for the attack. His closest friend has been questioned and authorities are reviewing his social connections with fellow online gamers. Local media reported that the man had felt bullied at the school and wanted revenge, although police said there was no direct evidence from his private life that he had expressed anger toward the school or its staff. LEGAL WEAPONS AND PSYCHOLOGICAL TESTS The shooter acquired his weapons legally in April and May after passing a psychological evaluation required for a firearms permit. He had practised shooting at a gun club since March. Austrian newspaper Kronen Zeitung reported that Arthur A. had dropped out of the school where the attack occurred and was later deemed psychologically unsuitable for military service due to his introversion. He lived with his mother in the commuter town of Kalsdorf bei Graz. Neighbours described him as a quiet figure who often wore a cap and headphones. Few residents spoken to by Reuters said they knew him personally. ALERT FOR COPYCAT INCIDENTS Police said they remained alert to possible copycat attacks. On Thursday, a separate incident at Vienna's Technical University raised alarms when a man threw a package into the building and claimed it would explode. Authorities later confirmed there was no threat. Of the 11 people injured in Tuesday's shooting, four were initially in intensive care. They are no longer intubated and are expected to be transferred to regular care. Deputy head of the Dreierschuetzengasse school, Norbert Urabl, told national broadcaster ORF that the issue of bullying must be handled with greater sensitivity. "Bullying occurs on so many levels that it's very difficult to pinpoint the term bullying in this case," he said. "But the fact is that, if bullying can be triggered, then more sensitivity is urgently needed to recognise bullying processes earlier."
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15 hours ago
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Global gender equality will take another 123 years: WEF report
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17 hours ago
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Second Italian journalist targeted with Paragon spyware, watchdog group says
LONDON :A second Italian journalist was recently targeted by software made by U.S.-owned surveillance company Paragon, internet watchdog group Citizen Lab said, raising new questions about a surveillance scandal that has already led Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's government and Paragon to part ways. Citizen Lab said in a report on Thursday that Italian investigative journalist Ciro Pellegrino's iPhone showed evidence of having been targeted by Paragon's sophisticated spy software. Pellegrino works at the online newspaper Fanpage, whose editor-in-chief Francesco Cancellato earlier disclosed that he was one of scores of users who received January alerts from WhatsApp that they had been targeted using Paragon's technology. Fanpage has published a stream of critical coverage of Meloni's government, notably an exposé tying her party's youth wing to neo-Nazi activity, and the allegation that Fanpage's journalists, among others, were put under surveillance has stirred controversy in Italy. On Monday, the government and Paragon announced that they were no longer working together, offering conflicting explanations about who fired whom. Paragon referred questions back to an earlier statement it provided to the Israeli publication Haaretz in which it said it had offered Italian officials a way to check whether its systems had been used against Cancellato, but that Italian authorities had rebuffed the offer. Italian officials did not return a message seeking comment on the Citizen Lab report. In a text exchange with Reuters, Pellegrino said the discovery that he had been targeted with spyware was "horrible." The Naples-based journalist said his phone was "the black box of my life, which contains everything from personal and health data to journalistic sources." Although an Italian parliamentary panel reported on Monday that the country's spy services had deployed Paragon's tools to intercept the communications of migrant sea rescue activists in the context of law enforcement work, the panel said it had found no evidence that the tools were used by Italian intelligence to go after Fanpage's Cancellato. The discovery of Paragon spyware on the phone of one of Cancellato's colleagues adds to questions about the panel's thoroughness, said Natalia Krapiva, a senior lawyer with Access Now, a human rights group that works with spyware victims. "It sheds serious doubt on the adequacy of the investigation," she said. The Italian parliamentary panel, which has reserved the right to conduct further investigations around the matter, did not respond to a message seeking comment. In its report, Citizen Lab also said that an unnamed European journalist was hacked with Paragon's spyware. The lab, which is based out of the University of Toronto, offered no other details and declined to answer questions about the journalist's identity or the circumstances of their targeting.
