Vienna: Nine people were killed in a shooting at a school in the Austrian city of Graz Tuesday, and the suspected perpetrator also died, authorities said.
Police said they believe the assailant acted alone. They said on social network X that 10 people were dead, including the shooter, and “several” were seriously wounded.
Mayor Elke Kahr described the events as a “terrible tragedy,” the Austria Press Agency reported. It added that the fatalities included students and at least one adult. Officials didn’t immediately give information on the perpetrator.
Special forces were among those sent to the BORG Dreierschützengasse high school, about a kilometer from Graz’s historic center, after a call at 10 a.m. local time.
At 11.30 a.m., police said that the school had been evacuated and everyone had been taken to a safe meeting point. They wrote that the situation was “secured” and there is no longer believed to be any danger.
Photos from the scene showed a large police deployment, including at least one helicopter and emergency vehicles around the school.
Graz, Austria ‘s second-biggest city, is located in the southeast of the country and has about 300,000 inhabitants.
Austrian Chancellor Christian Stocker, who was on his way to Graz, said the shooting “is a national tragedy that deeply shocks our whole country.”
“There are no words for the pain and grief that all of us — the whole of Austria — feel now,” he wrote in a statement posted on X.
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.
“Schools are symbols for youth, hope and the future,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen wrote on X. “It is hard to bear when schools become places of death and violence.”
Some weapons, such as rifles and shotguns that must be reloaded manually after each shot, can be purchased in Austria from the age of 18 without a permit. Gun dealers only need to check if there’s no weapons ban on the buyer and the weapon gets registered in the central weapons register.
Other weapons, such as repeating shotguns or semi-automatic firearms, are more difficult to acquire — buyers need a gun ownership card and a firearms pass.
AP
