Latest news with #Dreierschützengasse
BBC News
a day ago
- BBC News
Austria school shooting: Bomb attack plans found at suspect's home
Abandoned plans for a bomb attack have been found at the home of the suspected gunman in a school shooting in Austria, police have in the city of Graz also found a non-functional pipe bomb, and a "farewell" letter and video during the search, they said in a statement. Ten people were killed in the attack at the secondary school on Tuesday - the deadliest in the country's recent suspect, a 21-year-old former student at the school, took his own life in a school bathroom shortly after the attack, according to police. Authorities have not yet drawn any conclusions on the gunman's possible motive. The incident, which left a further 11 people injured, took place at Dreierschützengasse secondary school in the north-west of the females and three males were killed in the attack, and a seventh female later died in hospital. A teacher and nine students aged between 14 and 17 were among the victims, police said. One of the victims was a Polish citizen, while the other nine were Austrian days of mourning were declared in Austria following the attack, and a nationwide minute's silence was held on Wednesday at 10:00 local time (08:00 GMT) in memory of the victims. The Austrian flag has been lowered to half-mast on all public the minute's silence in Graz's main square, one woman, Tores, told BBC News that she knew one of the boys who had died. He was 17."I've know this family for a long time, including the son of the family, and knew that he attended that school. I rang immediately, to ask if everything is OK. Then they let me know at midday, that the boy was one of those slaughtered," she said. Police said the suspect was born in Styria and lived with his single mother, who was also Austrian, in the Graz-Umgebung District. They added that his father, of Armenian origin, had not lived with them since his parents' information suggests the shooter legally owned the two guns used in the attack - a pistol and a shotgun - and had a firearms licence, police gunman, who has not yet been named, did not graduate from the school, Interior Minister Gerhard Karner told a news conference on also confirmed the gunman was not known to police before the have increased security measures around schools in the city.
Yahoo
a day ago
- Yahoo
Farewell letter found at the home of the Austrian school shooter but motive remains unclear
GRAZ, Austria (AP) — Investigators found a farewell letter and a non-functional pipe bomb when they searched the home of a man who opened fire at his former school in Austria, killing 10 people and taking his own life, police said Wednesday. As Austria mourned the victims of what appeared to be the deadliest attack in its post-World War II history, with a national minute of silence planned Wednesday morning, questions remained about the motive of the shooter. The 21-year-old Austrian man lived near Graz and was a former student at the BORG Dreierschützengasse high school, in Austria's second-biggest city, who hadn't completed his studies. Police have said that he used two weapons, a shotgun and a handgun, which he appeared to have owned legally. Police didn't elaborate on investigators' findings in a brief post on social network X. But a senior official who acknowledged that the letter had been found on Tuesday night said it hadn't allowed them to draw conclusions. 'A farewell letter in analog and digital form was found,' Franz Ruf, the public security director at Austria's Interior Ministry, told ORF public television. 'He says goodbye to his parents. But no motive can be inferred from the farewell letter, and that is a matter for further investigations.' Asked whether the assailant had attacked victims randomly or targeted them specifically, Ruf said that is also under investigation and he didn't want to speculate. He said that wounded people were found on various levels of the school and, in one case, in front of the building.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Yahoo
'Dark day' in Austria as 10 people are killed in school shooting
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. However Mr Karner 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 said the 21-year-old Austrian gunman was found dead in the toilets of the school after the shootings and was operating alone. As it happened: Authorities say he 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. Meanwhile, investigators have found a farewell letter at the house of the suspect, the Kronen newspaper in Austria reports. Footage shared online revealed how gunshots and screaming could be heard after the gunman 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. "I've only found out now, two hours later, that he's still alive." Read more: 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). Around 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, Austria's second-biggest city, is located in the southeast of the country and about 300,000 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 (9am BST). 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. "Your teachers and your principal."
Sky News
2 days ago
- Sky News
'Dark day' in Austria as 10 people are killed in school shooting
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. However Mr Karner 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 said the 21-year-old Austrian gunman was found dead in the toilets of the school after the shootings and was operating alone. Police have said they did not have information about his possible motive. Meanwhile, investigators have found a farewell letter at the house of the suspect, the Kronen newspaper in Austria reports. Footage shared online revealed how gunshots and screaming could be heard after the gunman 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. "I've only found out now, two hours later, that he's 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). Around 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, Austria's second-biggest city, is located in the southeast of the country and about 300,000 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 (9am BST). 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.
BBC News
2 days ago
- Politics
- BBC News
Graz school shooting: Grief and shock in Austria's second city
There is shock, sadness and disbelief in Graz, after the worst shooting in modern Austrian history left 11 people dead, including the gunman."We never could have imagined that this could have happened here, in our place. It's a sad day for the whole city," said Reka, who lives close to the many years, Austria had been spared the pain of mass school that all changed at about 10:00 on Tuesday when a former student ran amok at a secondary school in the Dreierschützengasse, close to the main station in Austria's second largest classes were under way when the attack took place. Some students at the school would have been taking their final took police 17 minutes to bring the situation under control. By the time it was over six female victims and three males had died. Hours later, a seventh female victim, an adult woman, died in hospital. Several others remain in hospital, some with critical gunman, a 21-year-old Austrian citizen with two firearms, took his own life at the school.A former pupil who never passed his final exams, he is reported to have seen himself as a victim of bullying. Local resident Reka told me she couldn't understand how an attack like this could have happened in her well-ordered city."This area is quiet, safe and beautiful," she said. "People are nice, the school is good."Austria's President Alexander Van der Bellen said: "This horror cannot be put into words. What happened today in a school in Graz, hits our country right in the heart. These were young people who had their whole lives ahead of them. A teacher who accompanied them on their way."He said there was "nothing at this moment that can alleviate the pain that the parents, grandparents, siblings and friends of those murdered are feeling". Austria's Chancellor Christian Stocker, who rushed to the scene with the Interior Minister Gerhard Karner, called it "a national tragedy, that had shaken the entire country." He said there were no words to describe "the pain and grief that we all – the whole of Austria – is feeling".Three days of mourning have been declared in Austria. Flags on the Hofburg Palace in Vienna, where President van der Bellen has his office, will fly at 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 school shootings here are rare. There have been a few incidents over the years that have involved far fewer casualties:In 2018 a 19-year-old was shot by another youth in Mistelbach, north of ViennaIn 2012 in St Pölten, a pupil was shot dead by his fatherIn 1997, in Zöbern, a 15-year-old killed a teacher and seriously injured anotherAnd in 1993 a 13-year-old boy in Hausleiten seriously injured the head teacher and then killed most violent gun attack in recent years took place in the heart of Vienna in November 2020. Four people were killed and 22 injured when a convicted jihadist ran through the centre of the city opening fire, before he was eventually shot by guns and pump action guns are banned, while revolvers, pistols and semi-automatic weapons are 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 Graz gunman is understood to have owned both firearms legally, and he had no criminal record. One of his guns was bought only the day before the attack, according to one the school, a young man on a bicycle watched as the police allowed security vehicles through the security cordon round the school."It's horrific," he told me. "This is my home. I can't understand how so many people my age are dead. This shouldn't happen here."
