Austrians endure shock, horror after gunman kills 10 at school

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By Francois Murphy

GRAZ, Austria (Reuters) -Austrians were dumbfounded by grief and horror after a 21-year-old gunman killed 10 people in a high school shooting spree on Tuesday morning, unleashing a new kind of violence to the Alpine country unaccustomed to such slayings.

Parents of pupils, top government officials and local residents in the southern city of Graz were lost for words after the young man, who has not been named, opened fire at the school where he had recently been a pupil.

“Terrible. There’s nothing else to make of it, is there?” said Monika Leiner, a 55-year-old IT consultant who lives near the school. “I’m a bit older, and I’ve seen quite a few things but I can’t remember (a shooting with) so many deaths.”

Police have given no motive for the killings though Austrian newspaper Kronen Zeitung said officers found a farewell letter during a search of the suspect’s home. Authorities said the man did not graduate from the school and Austrian media published unconfirmed reports he had suffered from bullying.

Hundreds of police rushed to the scene after shots rang out at around 10 a.m. Shortly afterwards the perpetrator was dead, having shot himself in a toilet, authorities said. The killings were the worst Austrian school shooting on record.

The government declared three days of national mourning and political parties cancelled upcoming events. In the afternoon, people arrived to leave flowers and candles by the school.

President Alexander Van der Bellen said it was hard to express what the country was feeling.

“This horror cannot be put into words,” he said.

Long queues also formed outside a blood donation centre in Graz.

“Today is a hard day for all of us in Graz. I’m here to (donate) my blood to help other people who need it,” 25-year-old Stephanie Koenig told Reuters.

Police cordoned off the school and few parents of pupils there have so far made their feelings public.

The mother of one pupil told state broadcaster ORF that her son had called her during the shooting.

“It’s impossible to grasp,” said the woman, who was not named by the broadcaster. “I was just happy that he was on the phone and that I could hear him. But now I keep thinking about how others are doing.”

“He just told me that he had to run out and that he’d hidden in the garden. Everything else is too much for me now, including everything else he said,” she added.

Nola, a 21-year-old student and local resident, told Reuters a friend of one of her friends was among the victims.

“A friend of mine goes to that school. She found out that a friend of hers died,” she said. “She called me immediately afterwards in tears and said ‘Hannah is dead! Hannah is dead!’ and her parents were also beside themselves.”

(Reporting by Francois Murphy; Additional reporting by Alexandra Schwarz-Goerlich and Paul Arnold; Writing by Dave Graham; Editing by Sandra Maler)