A gunman killed at least nine people in an attack at a secondary school in the southern Austrian city of Graz on Tuesday.
Police said the attacker was also killed and that several people had been injured. They did not say how many of the dead were pupils.
Police did not publicly identify the killer but said they were working on the assumption that he acted alone. Austrian media cited unconfirmed reports saying he was a former pupil who had entered the school and opened fire on pupils.
“The rampage at a school in Graz is a national tragedy that has deeply shaken our entire country,” Austrian Chancellor Christian Stocker said in a statement.
“There are no words for the pain and grief that we all – all- of Austria – are feeling right now.”
A local police spokesman said the area had been secured, the school had been evacuated, and relatives of the victims and pupils were being cared for. Emergency workers could be seen loading a stretcher into an ambulance in a video from the scene.
In reports that Reuters could not immediately verify, the Kurier and Salzburger Nachrichten newspapers identified the suspect as a 22-year-old former student. Salzburger Nachrichten said he had been a victim of bullying.
He carried a pistol and a shotgun and opened fire on pupils in two classrooms, one of which had once been his classroom.
Details on www.reuters.com
