At least 11 dead in horror shooting at Austrian school
At least 11 people are dead, including the gunman, after a horrific shooting rampage at a secondary school in the southern Austrian city of Graz.
Six females and three males were killed at Dreierschützengasse Secondary School, according to Austrian Interior Minister Gerhard Karner on Wednesday morning, Australian time.
Graz University Hospital said a seriously injured adult, a woman, later died of her wounds, taking the number of dead to 10.
Karner gave no further details to identify the victims, but Austria’s APA news agency has reported that seven of those killed were pupils.
Police said they assumed the 21-year-old Austrian shooter, a former student 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.
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In video taken at the school and posted to X, loud volleys of gunshots can be heard wringing out at the school, with footage showing students being evacuated by heavily armed police.
“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, alongside other officials including Karner, he announced three days of mourning, with a minute’s silence to be held at 10am on Wednesday.
European Union President Ursula von der Leyen said: “It is difficult to bear when schools become places of death and violence.”
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.
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More than 300 police officers were called to the scene after shots were heard about 10am local time at the school where pupils aged 15 and above attend.
Police and ambulances arrived within minutes and authorities cordoned off the school.
Relatives of the victims and pupils were being cared for, authorities said.
Armed with a pistol and shotgun, the shooter opened fire on pupils in two classrooms, one of which had once been his own, the Salzburger Nachrichten newspaper reported.
A police investigation into the motive is ongoing. Photo: AAP
Authorities said he appeared to have legally owned the two weapons.
Police said investigations into a possible motive were ongoing and that they could not yet provide any information.
“Extensive criminal investigations are still required,” a police spokesperson said.
Julia Ebner, an extremism expert at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue think-tank, said the incident appeared to be the worst school shooting in Austria’s postwar history, describing such shootings as rare compared to some countries, including the US.
“I am deeply shaken that young people were torn from their lives so abruptly,” German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, one of several foreign leaders who expressed shock at the shooting, said in a message to Stocker.
“We hope that their loved ones can find comfort in the company of their families and friends in this dark hour.”
Austria 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 project.
