9 people, suspected gunman reported dead in a shooting at an Austrian school

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GRAZ, Austria (AP) — A former student opened fire at a school in Austria’s second-biggest city on Tuesday, killing nine people and wounding at least 12 others before taking his own life, authorities said.

There was no immediate information on the motive of the 21-year-old man, who wasn’t previously known to police. He had two weapons, which he appeared to have owned legally, police said.

Special forces were among those sent to the BORG Dreierschutzengasse high school, about a kilometer (over half a mile) from Graz’s historic center, after a call at 10 a.m. At 11.30 a.m., police wrote on social network X that the school had been evacuated and everyone had been taken to a safe meeting point.

Police said they didn’t immediately have information on the man’s motive, but said that he killed himself in a toilet after fatally shooting nine people.

The shooter was a former student at the school who didn’t finish his studies, Austrian Interior Minister Gerhard Karner said at a press conference in Graz.

Austrian Chancellor Christian Stocker said there would be three days of national mourning, with the Austrian flag lowered to half-staff and a national minute of mourning at 10 a.m. Wednesday. He said that it was “a dark day in the history of our country.”

Photos from the scene showed a large police deployment, including at least one helicopter and emergency vehicles around the school.

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.”

Graz, Austria’s second-biggest city, is located in the southeast of the country and has about 300,000 inhabitants.