Austria has held a minute of silence for 10 people killed in a school shooting, after thousands gathered for a candlelight vigil for the victims on Tuesday evening.<\/p>\n
Police said the 21-year-old suspect, a former student, took his own life in a school bathroom shortly after the gun attack in Graz on Tuesday \u2013 the deadliest in the country\u2019s recent history.<\/p>\n
In a statement on Wednesday, police said they found a \u201cfarewell letter\u201d and a non-functional pipe bomb during a search of the suspect\u2019s home. Authorities have not confirmed the gunman\u2019s motive.<\/p>\n
The incident, which left a further 12 people injured, took place at Dreiersch\u00fctzengasse secondary school in the north-west of the city.<\/p>\n
Six females and three males were killed in the attack, and a seventh female died later in hospital. Austria\u2019s APA news agency has reported that seven of those killed were pupils.<\/p>\n
Three days of mourning have been declared in Austria, and a nationwide minute\u2019s silence was held on Wednesday at 10:00 local time in memory of the victims. The Austrian flag has been lowered to half-mast on all public buildings.<\/p>\n
After the minute\u2019s silence in Graz\u2019s main square, one woman, Tores, told BBC News that she knew one of the boys who had died. He was 17.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve know this family for a long time, including the son of the family, and knew that he attended that school. I rang immediately, to ask if everything is OK. Then they let me know at midday, that the boy was one of those slaughtered,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat happened yesterday is completely awful, the whole of Austria is in mourning,\u201d she said. \u201cThis is terrible for the whole of Austria.\u201d<\/p>\n
At the vigil on Tuesday night, Graz residents said they wanted to turn the city\u2019s main square into a sea of candles, and that is what they did.<\/p>\n
In the whispering silence, thousands of mostly young people gathered over the course of the evening, alone or clutching the arms or shoulders of their friends. They lit candles, cried, or stood for a while in prayer or contemplation.<\/p>\n
Then they slowly came forward to hand candles to volunteers who arranged them carefully on the steps of the fountain.<\/p>\n
The Archduke Johann fountain is known as the heart of the old town of Graz, in front of the city hall. On Tuesday night it became a symbol of the grief, and solidarity, of the people of Austria.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you hear about it, you have so much sympathy for the people, maybe you could have known someone,\u201d Felix Platzer, a passerby at the vigil, told the Reuters news agency.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is an example of solidarity and you grieve together and together it is easier to cope,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
The school where the attack took place will remain closed until further notice.<\/p>\n
Austrian Chancellor Christian Stocker said Tuesday was a \u201cdark day in [the] history of our country\u201d and declared the shooting a \u201cnational tragedy\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cA school is more than just a place to learn \u2013 it is a space for trust, for feeling comfortable and for having a future,\u201d he told the conference, adding this safe place had been \u201cviolated\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn these difficult hours, being human is our strongest point,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The attack \u201cstrikes our country right at its heart\u201d, Stocker said in the immediate aftermath.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese were young people who had their whole lives ahead of them.\u201d<\/p>\n
The gunman, who has not yet been named, was a former Dreiersch\u00fctzengasse student who didn\u2019t graduate from the school, Interior Minister Gerhard Karner told a news conference on Tuesday afternoon.<\/p>\n
Karner added it was now the job of the criminal office to investigate.<\/p>\n
Officers alsoconfirmed the gunman was not known to police before the attack.<\/p>\n
Current information suggests the shooter legally owned the two guns used in the attack and had a firearms licence, police added.<\/p>\n
Local media outlets have reported the suspect used a pistol and a shotgun to carry out the shooting.<\/p>\n
He was an Austrian man from the wider Graz region who acted alone, police said.Gunshots heard and students evacuate in videos filmed at Austrian school<\/p>\n
Police said they began an operation at 10:00 local time (09:00 BST) after gunshots were heard from inside the school.<\/p>\n
A specialist Cobra tactical unit \u2013 which handles attacks and hostage situations \u2013 was deployed to the school, police said.<\/p>\n
Authorities evacuated all pupils and teachers from the building. Police confirmed the school had been secured and there was no further danger posed to members of the public.<\/p>\n
\u201cLocally, we have seen people crying on the streets, talking to friends that have been at the school when the shooting happened, who have maybe lost a friend,\u201d said Fanny Gasser, a journalist for the Austrian daily newspaper Kronen Zeitung.<\/p>\n
She told BBC News \u201ceverybody knows somebody\u201d at the school because Graz \u2013 despite being the second-largest city in Austria \u2013 is \u201cnot that big\u201d.<\/p>\n
She said the school was likely unprepared for the possibility of an attack. \u201cWe are not living in America, we are living in Austria, which seems like a very safe space.\u201d<\/p>\n
Local mayor Elke Kahr called the incident a \u201cterrible tragedy\u201d.<\/p>\n
European Commission Vice-President Kaja Kallas said she was \u201cdeeply shocked\u201d by the news. \u201cEvery child should feel safe at school and be able to learn free from fear and violence,\u201d she posted on X.<\/p>\n
Astrid, a woman living with her husband Franz in the ground floor flat of the residential building next to the school, told the BBC she had just finished hanging out the washing when she heard gunfire.<\/p>\n
She said: \u201cI heard shots. Lots of them, one after the other. \u2018Poof\u2026 poof\u2026 poof\u2026. poof\u2026 poof\u2026\u2019 again and again. I went into the flat to my husband and I told him: \u2018Someone is shooting!\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cHe thought it was maybe something else, but we heard I reckon 30 to 40 shots. Then my husband rang the police.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe saw one pupil at the window \u2013 it looked like he was getting ready to jump out\u2026 but then he went back inside,\u201d Franz said, adding they also saw a teacher.<\/p>\n
The pair later saw the students had \u201cgot out of the school on the ground floor, from the other side\u201d where they \u201cgathered on the street\u201d, Franz said.<\/p>\n
By Tuesday afternoon, long queues had formed outside a blood donation centre in Graz.<\/p>\n
\u201cToday is a hard day for all of us in Graz. I\u2019m here to [donate] my blood to help other people who need it,\u201d 25-year-old Stephanie Koenig told Reuters news agency.<\/p>\n
\u201cToday I\u2019m here because I wanted to do something. I felt helpless with the news,\u201d Johanna, 30, said.<\/p>\n
Another person standing in line told Reuters giving blood felt like the \u201conly way possible to help\u201d.<\/p>\n
The incident is the deadliest mass shooting in the country\u2019s recent history.<\/p>\n
In 2020, jihadist gunman Kujtim Fejzulai shot four people dead and wounded 23 others on a rampage through Vienna\u2019s busy nightlife district.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, in 2016, a gunman opened fire at a concert in the town of Nenzing, killing two people before shooting himself dead. Eleven other people were injured in the attack.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Austria has held a minute of silence for 10 people killed in a school shooting, after thousands gathered for a candlelight vigil for the victims on Tuesday evening. Police said the 21-year-old suspect, a former student, took his own life in a school bathroom shortly after the gun attack in Graz on Tuesday \u2013 the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-116327","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116327","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=116327"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116327\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116327"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116327"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116327"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}