Austria is reeling after the deadliest school shooting in its modern history claimed 11 lives and left more than a dozen others wounded at a high school in the city of Graz.
The shooting unfolded Tuesday morning at BORG Dreierschützengasse, when a 21-year-old former student opened fire on classmates and staff using two legally owned firearms—a long gun and a handgun. The attacker, who had previously attended the school but left without graduating, later took his own life inside a restroom, authorities said.
Interior Minister Gerhard Karner confirmed that among the victims were six women and four men. A gravely wounded female student later died in the hospital, raising the death toll to eleven. Over ten others sustained injuries, some in critical condition.
The motive behind the attack remains unclear. Investigators have yet to determine what led the young man to carry out what officials described as an “unprecedented act of violence” in the country.
Emergency services responded swiftly. The elite Cobra tactical unit secured the school just 17 minutes after the first emergency call at 10:00 a.m. Local officials evacuated students and staff and set up crisis intervention centers nearby. Nearly 300 police officers and over 220 Red Cross personnel took part in the massive response effort.
Austria has declared three days of national mourning. Flags were lowered to half-staff across government buildings, and a nationwide minute of silence was observed Wednesday morning.
Chancellor Christian Stocker called the massacre a “national tragedy” that has left the country shaken. President Alexander Van der Bellen echoed the sentiment, stating, “There are no words for this horror. Austria mourns.”
Graz, Austria’s second-largest city, last faced such trauma in 2015 during a vehicular attack that killed three people. But Tuesday’s violence marks an even deeper scar in the nation’s sense of safety.
