Graz holds Mass for victims of Austria's deadliest shooting since WWII
Several hundred people attended a Mass in Graz for the 10 victims of Austria's deadliest shooting in its post-war history on Tuesday evening.
Ten people, including students, were killed and others injured on Tuesday after a gunman opened fire at a school in Austria's second-biggest city before killing himself, according to authorities.
There was no immediate information on the motive of the 21-year-old former student of the school, who had no previous police records.
Austria's Press Agency said the authorities seized a suicide note reportedly belonging to the attacker, which provided no clues as to why he carried out the attack.
He owned two weapons which he used to carry out the assault, both of which he legally owned.
Austria's Chancellor Christian Stocker, Vice Chancellor Andreas Babler and Foreign Minister Beate Meinl-Reisinger attended the Mass for the victims at Graz Cathedral.
'Today is a dark day in the history of our country,' Stocker told reporters in the city of about 300,000 people in southern Austria and the capital of Styria.
The day was 'a national tragedy that shocks us deeply', he said as he declared three days of national mourning, with the Austrian flag lowered to half-mast at official buildings. A national minute of silence is to be held on Wednesday morning in memory of the victims.
Resident Elisabeth Schuster, who came to the Mass to show solidarity with the victims of the tragedy, said the incident "shocked me a lot like everybody else."
"I'm with them, feel for them. And I hope that together we can find a way, so that something like this never happens again," she added.
In Graz's main square people also gathered for a candle-lit vigil to mourn the victims of the fatal attack.
Cobra special forces were among those sent as part of the first response team to the BORG Dreierschützengasse high school, about a kilometre from Graz's historic centre, after calls at 10 am local time reporting shots at the building.
More than 300 police officers were also deployed to the scene, who helped evacuate students from the school. Footage from the scene showed students filing out quickly past armed officers. Police said security was restored in 17 minutes.
Interior Minister Gerhard Karner said the gunman had been a student at the school who had failed to complete his studies.
Austria has some of the more liberal gun laws in the EU.
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