The perpetrator also died during the incident in Graz, the nation’s second-largest city, on Tuesday morning.
Nine people were killed in a shooting at a school in the city of Graz, Austria.
The suspect, who local police described as a 21-year-old Austrian man from the Graz-Umgebung district, also died in the attack.
Police said he used two legally owned weapons to carry out the shooting, before shooting himself in a restroom.
State Police Director Gerald Ortner told a press conference that the suspect had no criminal record and that the weapons used were a long gun and a handgun.
Austrian Interior Minister Gerhard Karner told the same press conference that the suspect was a former student at the school who had failed to graduate, but declined to provide further details, citing the ongoing investigation.
He added that the victims comprised six females and three males—seven teenagers and two adults. Another 12 people sustained injuries.
No motive has yet been identified.
Special forces were among those sent to the BORG Dreierschützengasse high school after receiving a call at 10 a.m. local time.
Police wrote on social media platform X at 11:30 a.m. that the school had been evacuated and everyone had been taken to safety.
They wrote that the situation was “secured” and that there is no longer believed to be any danger.
Graz is in the southeast of the country and is Austria’s second-largest city after the capital, Vienna, with around 300,000 inhabitants.
Austria’s chancellor, Christian Stocker, said the shooting was a “national tragedy” in a June 10 statement posted on X.
“My thoughts are with the families and parents who lost their child. With their siblings and relatives,” he said.
“A school is a place of trust, security, and hope. The fact that this safe space was so brutally shaken leaves us stunned.”
The Austrian government has declared three days of national mourning.
Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen said on X 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.
By Guy Birchall
