Authorities have stated that the assailant in the school shooting in Graz was a 21-year-old Austrian man who possessed two weapons, which he appeared to have owned legally.
Police reported they did not immediately have information on the man`s motive, but confirmed he killed himself in a toilet after fatally shooting nine people. At least 12 others were wounded, some seriously, reported AP.
Earlier, the Mayor of Graz, Elke Kahr, described the events as a “terrible tragedy,” stating that at least eight people were killed in the shooting at a school in the Austrian city on Tuesday, and the suspected perpetrator also died, according to the Austria Press Agency. It added that the fatalities were seven students and one adult. Kahr mentioned that many people were taken to hospitals with injuries. However, the police said they believe the assailant acted alone.
Special forces were among those dispatched to the BORG Dreierschutzengasse high school, approximately a kilometre from Graz`s historic centre, following a call at 10 a.m. By 11:30 a.m., police had posted on social network X that the school had been evacuated and everyone had been taken to a safe meeting point. They also wrote that the situation was “secured” and there was no longer believed to be any danger. Police were deployed in large numbers, with police and other emergency vehicles guarding the area around the school and at least one police helicopter flying overhead, according to photos published by the regional newspaper Kleine Zeitung, as reported by AP.
Graz, Austria`s second-largest city, is located in the southeast of the country and has approximately 300,000 inhabitants.
Austrian Chancellor Christian Stocker, who is travelling to Graz, stated that the shooting “is a national tragedy that deeply shocks our whole country.” He wrote in a statement posted on X, “There are no words for the pain and grief that all of us, the whole of Austria, feel now.”
President Alexander Van der Bellen commented that “this horror cannot be captured in words.”
He further said,”these were young people who had their whole lives ahead of them. A teacher who accompanied them on their way.”
According to AP, Interior Minister Gerhard Karner was also en route to Graz.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen wrote on X, “Schools are symbols for youth, hope and the future. It is hard to bear when schools become places of death and violence.”
(With inputs from AP)
