Austria mass school shooting leaves police searching for answers

Thomson Reuters

· Posted: Jun 11, 2025 7:42 AM EDT | Last Updated: 4 hours ago

Austrian authorities were searching connected Wednesday for answers to wherefore a 21-year-old gunman changeable dormant 10 radical successful a rampage astatine his erstwhile precocious schoolhouse earlier sidesplitting himself, 1 of the worst outbreaks of unit successful the country's modern history.

Police said the man, equipped with a shotgun and a pistol, acted alone. They are scouring his location and the net for clues arsenic to wherefore helium opened occurrence connected the schoolhouse successful Graz, Austria's 2nd largest city, connected Tuesday, earlier shooting himself successful a bathroom.

The incidental was hard to decently instrumentality in, said a spiritual studies teacher astatine the school, Paul Nitsche, who near his schoolroom earlier the gunman tried to enter and concisely saw him trying to sprout the fastener disconnected different door.

"This is thing I couldn't adjacent ideate before," helium told nationalist broadcaster ORF. "As I ran down the stairwell, I thought to myself: 'This wasn't real.'"

Some Austrian media person said the young man, who has not been identified, seemingly felt bullied, though constabulary person yet to corroborate this. Austrian authorities said the fishy ne'er completed his studies astatine the school.

He near a farewell enactment that did not uncover the motive for the attack, constabulary said, adding that a tube weaponry recovered astatine his location was not functional.

Ennio Resnik, a pupil astatine the school, said students and teachers needed clip to travel to presumption with what had happened and asked that they beryllium near successful bid for a fewer days.

"It's surreal, you can't picture oregon truly recognize it," helium said, speaking to reporters extracurricular an events centre near the schoolhouse wherever students were being offered counselling.

Some of the students gathered determination cried, portion others held each other.

Franz Ruf, manager wide of nationalist security, said investigations into the motive were moving swiftly.

"We don't privation to speculate astatine this point," helium told ORF connected Tuesday night.

Police were connected the alert for imaginable copycat attacks, and they had received a menace against different schoolhouse successful Graz precocious connected Tuesday, helium said.

WATCH | Shooting suspect's motive remains unclear:

Around 17 minutes elapsed betwixt the archetypal exigency calls received by constabulary astir shots being fired astatine the schoolhouse and the country being declared safe, Ruf said.

Austria has 1 of the astir heavy equipped civilian populations successful Europe, says the Small Arms Survey, an autarkic probe project. The onslaught sparked calls for its weapon laws to beryllium tightened, including 1 from Graz's mayor.

Police said the guns utilized were successful the suspect's possession legally, and Ruf said that portion Austrian weapon laws are strict, the lawsuit was being looked into. "If determination are immoderate loopholes, they request to beryllium closed," helium said.

Details of the onslaught person emerged slowly.

Austrian constabulary said victims were recovered some extracurricular and wrong the school, connected assorted floors. About a twelve radical were injured successful the attack, immoderate seriously.

Austria declared 3 days of nationalist mourning, with the shootings prompting a uncommon amusement of solidarity among often bitterly divided governmental parties. Parents of pupils and neighbours of the schoolhouse struggled to marque consciousness of the event.

Hundreds came unneurotic successful Graz's main quadrate connected Tuesday evening to retrieve the victims. Others near flowers and lit candles extracurricular the school. Dozens besides queued to donate humor for the survivors.