A shooter opened hearth at a highschool in Austria’s second most populous metropolis, Graz, on Tuesday. At the least 11 folks have died, together with the suspect, in keeping with town’s mayor and police.
The assault on Tuesday represents the Central European nation’s deadliest mass taking pictures exterior of wars.
Here’s what we all know to date:
What occurred — and the place?
The taking pictures occurred within the morning on the BORG Dreierschutzengasse secondary faculty in Graz, the capital of the southern Austrian province of Styria.
Police had been referred to as to the college at round 10am (08:00 GMT) after photographs had been heard there.
Graz is about 200km (124 miles) southwest of Vienna and is house to historic landmarks just like the Uhrturm, or Clock Tower, on the Schlossberg hill. The town of greater than 300,000 folks is the second most populous within the nation after Vienna.
Identified for its universities and schools, Graz is a demographically various metropolis. International nationals make up 1 / 4 of its inhabitants, with Croatians, Romanians, Germans and Bosnians the 4 largest teams, in keeping with the metropolis administration, as of January.
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What do we all know concerning the victims?
At the least 11 folks have been killed, the Austrian information company APA quoted Graz Mayor Elke Kahr as saying.
The police and Kahr independently confirmed that the suspect was among the many lifeless.
Kahr mentioned that there have been no less than seven college students and two adults among the many victims.
Police mentioned no less than 30 folks had been injured.
What do we all know concerning the shooter?
Austrian information media recognized the suspect as a 21-year-old former pupil. The newspaper Salzburger Nachrichten mentioned he had been a sufferer of bullying.
The shooter reportedly carried a pistol and a shotgun and opened hearth on pupils in two lecture rooms, considered one of which had as soon as been his classroom.
APA and Kronen Zeitung, Austria’s largest newspaper, individually reported that the suspect was discovered lifeless in a toilet.
The native police wrote in an X put up that they had been working on the belief that the perpetrator was performing alone.
What are the authorities saying?
Austrian Chancellor Christian Stocker described the assault as a “nationwide tragedy” in a assertion posted on X.
“The rampage at a faculty in Graz is a nationwide tragedy that has deeply shaken our total nation,” he wrote. “There are not any phrases for the ache and grief that all of us – all of Austria – are feeling proper now.”
Stocker introduced on Tuesday that Austria will maintain three days of mourning within the wake of the incident.
President Alexander Van der Bellen additionally launched a assertion on X, saying: “These had been younger individuals who had their complete lives forward of them. A instructor who accompanied them on their journey. There may be nothing that may ease the ache felt by the mother and father, grandparents, siblings and mates of the murdered folks at this second.”
What’s the newest on the bottom?
The police wrote {that a} police operation was below method on the scene.
The native police wrote on X: “The college was evacuated and all individuals had been taken to a secure assembly level” at 11:31am (09:31 GMT) on Tuesday. They added that officers had secured the college and they didn’t anticipate any additional hazard for anybody.
The police added that authorities had earmarked ASKO Stadium, house of native soccer membership ESK Graz, because the designated assembly level for folks of scholars on the faculty. A police helicopter, officers mentioned, was getting used within the rescue operation.
Earlier, ambulances had been seen exterior the college.
What are the reactions to the incident?
European Union international coverage chief Kaja Kallas wrote in an X put up: “Each little one ought to really feel secure in school and be capable to study free from concern and violence. My ideas are with the victims, their households and the Austrian folks on this darkish second.”
European Fee chief Ursula von der Leyen wrote in an X put up: “Faculties are symbols of youth, hope, and the long run. It’s exhausting to bear when faculties turn into locations of demise and violence.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote on X: “Faculties ought to by no means turn into locations of violence. Our hearts exit to the victims, their households, and the folks of Austria.”
Have there been shootings in Austria up to now?
Sure.
Mass shootings in Austria date again to no less than 1981 when a machine gun and grenade assault killed two folks and injured 30 at a synagogue. The assault focused folks leaving a bar mitzvah ceremony. In 1982, two Palestinian males born in Jordan and Iraq had been sentenced to life imprisonment for that assault.
In 2013, an alleged deer poacher shot lifeless three policemen and an ambulance driver whereas being chased by the police close to the Austrian city of Annaburg. The perpetrator was recognized as Alois Huber.
In 2016, a gunman opened hearth at a live performance within the city of Nenzing, killing two folks and fatally taking pictures himself. Eleven folks had been injured. The shooter, Gregor Schallert, had been concerned in a heated argument along with his girlfriend earlier than he opened hearth, in keeping with native studies.
In 2020, 4 folks had been killed and 23 had been injured in a taking pictures in Vienna hours earlier than the capital was to enter lockdown in the course of the COVID-19 pandemic. The gunman was shot lifeless by the police. Authorities described the shooter as a sympathiser of the ISIL (ISIS) armed group.
How widespread is gun possession in Austria?
Gun possession is widespread in Austria, with about 30 firearms per 100 folks, in keeping with the unbiased analysis venture Small Arms Survey. This makes Austrians probably the most closely armed populations in Europe.
“Folks right here have been saying that that is one thing that we used to look at on tv, in locations like the USA of America, Germany, or France,” Al Jazeera’s Hashem Ahelbarra mentioned, reporting from Graz. “And that they by no means imagined that one thing like this might occur proper right here, of their nation.”
Machine weapons and pump-action weapons are banned in Austria.
Official authorisation is required to personal revolvers, pistols and semiautomatic weapons. To personal rifles and shotguns, Austrians require a firearms licence, a legitimate searching licence or a membership at conventional taking pictures golf equipment.
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