Austria mourns victims of school shooting
GRAZ
People light candles for victims of a former student who opened fire at a school, fatally wounding 10 people and injuring many others before taking his own life, in Graz, Austria, Tuesday, June 10, 2025.
Austria began three days of mourning on Wednesday for the 10 people killed in a school shooting as investigators revealed they found a makeshift bomb at the home of the suspect.
The 21-year-old former pupil at the Dreierschützengasse secondary school in the second city of Graz shot dead 10 people on June 10 in an unprecedented rampage that stunned the Alpine country.
Police said that he acted alone and took his own life in the toilet at the school.
A "non-functional homemade bomb" was also found during a search at the suspect's home, police said yesterday.
They also found a goodbye letter to the suspect's parents, but it included no clues about his motive.
Locals hugged each other and cried as they left flowers, candles and letters to the victims outside the city center school, which has around 400 students aged between 14 and 18.
Chancellor Christian Stocker, who described the shooting as "a national tragedy," announced three days of national mourning, while a minute's silence was observed across the country at 10 a.m. yesterday.
Nine victims were immediately confirmed and a woman died later in hospital from her wounds, an official said. A 17-year-old French student was among the victims, his father told AFP.
Twelve people suffered serious injuries.
Police said the alleged perpetrator was an Austrian from the Graz region who used two legally owned weapons.
He was a former pupil at the secondary school, but never finished his studies there, Interior Minister Gerhard Karner told reporters.
Some Austrian media claimed that the suspect had been bullied, while television stations discussed the ease with which Austrians can acquire firearms and the number in circulation in the country.
