GRAZ (AUSTRIA): 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.
Austria’s media reported that a 10th victim died later in hospital of her wounds. Authorities were not immediately available to confirm the report.
Interior Minister Gerhard Karner said six of the victims killed in the school were female and three were male and that 12 people had been injured. He gave no further details to identify the victims but Austrian media said most were pupils.
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. His motive was not yet known.
“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.
Austrian newspaper Kronen-Zeitung said police had found a farewell note from the shooter during a search of his home. It did not say what was in the note and police were not immediately available to comment.
The killings caused shock and consternation in Austria, a usually peaceful country unaccustomed to multiple fatalities of the kind that occurred in Graz, its second-biggest city.
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.-Reuters
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