2 days ago
Pictured: Second Austria school massacre victim who was gunned down by cat-obsessed loner - as her father pays heartbreaking tribute to 'my little mouse'
The second victim of Austria's deadly school shooting has been pictured for the first time.
Student Hana A., 15, was among the 10 people who were brutally murdered on Tuesday after a former pupil opened fire at a high school in Graz.
Sharing a selfie with his beloved daughter, Hana's devastated father confirmed her death and paid tribute to her in a social media post.
'My little mouse, may God grant you paradise', he wrote on Facebook.
The teen, who was originally from Bosnia and Herzegovina, was due to graduate in three years and hoped to study medicine.
Imam Sabahudin Hasić, the spiritual leader of the Bošnjak Islamic community in Graz, described her as a 'ray of sunshine' who had a 'bright future ahead of her, and now it has been taken away.'
Hana's brother delivered a touching speech to hundreds of people at a vigil on Wednesday evening.
'Hana was so energetic, so full of life, so brave', her grief stricken sibling said.
'I thank you for the 15 years I was able to spend with miss you and we love you'.
He also described the moment he found out about the gun rampage at the school, and how he knew something was wrong when he didn't hear from her.
'She didn't contact me, and my worries grew even greater. I'm experiencing something I knew from a movie in real life.'
Hana's friend Lea Ilir Bajrami was also killed.
Mourning the teen in a Facebook post on Tuesday, Lea's heartbroken aunt wrote: 'Today, my niece Lea tragically lost her life in the attack in Graz. We pray for her soul and express our gratitude to all those who share our pain during these difficult times.'
Authorities have been searching for clues as to why a 21-year-old gunman, named locally as Artur A., shot dead 10 people at his former high school, BORG Dreierschützengasse, before turning the gun on himself.
Police said he acted alone in Tuesday's rampage, armed with a shotgun and a pistol.
Investigators have been scouring his home and the internet to find out why he opened fire at the school.
Arthur A., a 21-year-old from a suburb of Graz, was pictured holding a cat in the first images to emerge since the horrifying attack.
He reportedly sent his mother a farewell video just moments before he went on his killing spree.
Alarmed by his confusing message, she immediately notified police.
But by that time, Artur had already carried out the deadly attack and taken his own life in a bathroom.
In another message left behind, he was said to have blamed the school and bullying for the act. He also asked that his cat be looked after, Kronen Zeitung reports.
Investigators said they found a non-functional pipe bomb and abandoned plans for a bombing in a search of the assailant's home.
'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 Tuesday night.
'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.
Policemen are seen in a street close to the school where several people died in a shooting, on June 10, 2025
He said that wounded people were found on various levels of the school and, in one case, in front of the building.
The former student killed a teacher and nine pupils between the ages of 14 and 17. A further 11 were seriously injured.
In new details, investigators said the gunman, who would have turned 22 in less than two weeks, did not have his own social media profiles.
He was described as a loner who maintained contact with only one friend, who did not know he was planning to unleash carnage on Tuesday morning.
Despite living in Kalsforf - population 8,000 - for five years, Artur did not get involved in any local events, activities or sports teams. He also appeared to have no social media profiles.
'He was a very inconspicuous young man,' said Kalsdorf mayor Manfred Komericky.
'It felt like he wasn't even noticed. Nobody really knew him. This is exactly the profile that we unfortunately see too often - silent, socially isolated recluses.'
Artur had studied computer science at middle school and went on to business school until 2019, local media reports.
He lived with his single mother in a suburb of Graz and had struggled to find work, Heute reports.
Artur is understood to have been a former student at the school attacked on Tuesday, but had not completed his studies.
In the country's worst mass school shooting, terror-stricken pupils pretended to be dead as they cowered in corridors and two classrooms or ran for their lives.
Chilling video captured the sound of shots followed by screams as the gunman picked off his victims.
The victims were commemorated with a minute's silence on Wednesday morning.
Churches rang funeral bells, including St Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna, where around 900 public transport vehicles halted for a minute.
Public broadcaster ORF paused all radio and TV programmes for one minute, with TV showing a message to say the country was mourning the victims.
Ennio Resnik, a pupil at the school, said students and teachers needed time to come to terms with what had happened, and asked that they be left in peace for a few days.
'It's surreal, you can't describe or really understand it,' he said, speaking to reporters outside an events centre near the school where students were being offered counselling.
Austria declared three days of national mourning, with the shootings prompting a rare show of solidarity among often bitterly divided political parties.
