Austria has been left reeling after ten people were killed in the deadliest gun attack in its recent history, carried out in the gunman’s former school.
Thousands of Austrians lit candles in a vigil for the victims in Graz on Tuesday evening. Police have confirmed they are nine teenagers ranging from 14 to 17 years old, and a 59-year-old teacher.
The gunman, a 21-year-old former student who reportedly felt bullied during his time at the BORG school, was found dead in a toilet, suspected of having turned the gun on himself. He has been named in Austrian media as Arthur A.
As the country mourns, the horrors of Tuesday morning have now been laid bare in traumatic witness accounts from the students and teachers who barricaded themselves in their classrooms as booming gunfire rattled through the school.
It would be 17 minutes before armed police had secured the school and began the speedy evacuation of the survivors. It has since been reported that a chance to stop the gunman may have been missed, after he sent his mother a suicide note.
Here is the full story of Austria’s deadliest shooting in decades.
What happened on Tuesday morning?
Armed with a shotgun and a pistol, the gunman descended on the school at around 10am on Tuesday.
He was spotted trying to shoot the lock off a door to the building by religious studies teacher Paul Nitsche, who was leaving his classroom as the gunman tried to enter.
"This is something I couldn't even imagine before," Mr Nitsche told national broadcaster ORF. "That's what the situation was like as I ran down the stairwell. I thought to myself: 'This wasn't real.'"
Eyewitness videos show panicked students hiding under tables as the shots echo out in the background. Students and teachers called family members to say goodbye and tell them they loved them, survivors told Kronen Zeitung.
"We're safe, but the situation is dire. Shooting's going on constantly,” one teacher told her husband over the phone.
Meanwhile, hundreds of police officers and dozens of ambulances were rushing to the scene of the deadliest crime Austria has suffered in decades. Not long more than quarter of an hour had passed before police had swarmed the site and declared the danger over.
At this point, ten people had died including the gunman, and 12 had been injured. Paramedics faced a scene of horror, nearly two dozen people having suffered gunshot wounds at the hands of the suspected attacker. An eleventh victim later died from their injuries.
Traumatised survivors were taken to a nearby centre where they were cared for by medics and counsellors.
What do we know about the victims?
Details on the victims have so far been limited.
Ten people, including students, were killed by the gunman according to police. According to Kronen Zeitung, police confirmed that the youngest victim, one of nine teenagers killed in the attack was 14 years old. The other teenagers were between 15 and 17, while a 59-year-old teacher was also killed.
Another 12 were injured, but it is unclear whether this total became 11 after confirmation that a 10th victim had died in hospital. Nine of those injured were in a serious condition and two were critical, the Austria Red Cross said.
The names of the victims have not yet been confirmed by authorities, but at least one teacher is believed to be among the dead.
What do we know about the shooter?
The 21-year-old Austrian gunman, who lived in the Graz area, was once a pupil at the same school in which he unleashed gunfire, police said. He failed to complete his studies.
He had not attracted any previous police attention, but upon searching his apartment police found discarded plans for a bomb attack, alongside a non-functional pipe bomb.
According to Austrian news programme Heute, the gunman lived with his mother, older brothers and a cat in Graz. A struggling student, the gunman had to repeat the year while studying in the information technology department, before leaving the school in 2022, the outlet reported.
Frustration and disappointment marked that era of his life, Heute reported, as he subsequently failed to gain a foothold in the job market.
A suicide note was found by police after the shooting, according to reports in Salzburger Nachrichten and Kronen Zeitung. The note appeared to show that he considered himself a victim of bullying.
Heute reported that the suspect’s mother was sent a video clip from her son declaring his intentions to carry out the shooting.
However, she did not open it for 24 minutes and by that time she had seen it and reported it to the police it was too late, Heute adds.
In a press conference on Tuesday, police said they believed the gunman took his own life in the school’s toilet and that he had been carrying two firearms, for which he had licences. Mr Karner said “everything else is still speculation”, and investigators were working to find out the shooter’s motives.
What is happening now?
Austria has declared a three-day period of national mourning, following one of the largest peacetime tragedies in the country’s history.
The governor of Styria, Mario Kunasek, said no public events will be held in the state for the mourning period. Chancellor Christian Stocker, vice chancellor Andreas Babler, education minister Christoph Wiederkehr and interior minister Gerhard Karner attended a memorial service at Graz cathedral on Tuesday evening.
The police investigation into the shooting will continue, as Austrians question how and why the gunman was able to carry out the attack.
Police have not named the shooter nor his supposed motive.
The identities of the ten victims are likely to be released in the near future, after authorities have formally confirmed their identities and informed the families.
