Central Europe Correspondent
Thousands of people in Austria have held a candlelight vigil for the victims of a school shooting in which 10 people were killed.
Police said the 21-year-old suspect, a former student, took his own life in a school bathroom shortly after the gun attack in Graz on Tuesday – the deadliest in the country’s recent history.
In a statement on Wednesday, police said they found a “farewell letter” and a non-functional pipe bomb during a search of the suspect’s home. Authorities have not confirmed the gunman’s motive.
The incident, which left a further 12 people injured, took place at Dreierschützengasse secondary school in the north-west of the city.
Six females and three males were killed in the attack, and a seventh female died later in hospital. Austria’s APA news agency has reported that seven of those killed were pupils.
At the vigil on Tuesday night, Graz residents said they wanted to turn the city’s main square into a sea of candles, and that is what they did.
In the whispering silence, thousands of mostly young people gathered over the course of the evening, alone or clutching the arms or shoulders of their friends. They lit candles, cried, or stood for a while in prayer or contemplation.
Then they slowly came forward to hand candles to volunteers who arranged them carefully on the steps of the fountain.
The Archbishop Johann fountain is known as the heart of the old town of Graz, in front of the city hall. On Tuesday night it became a symbol of the grief, and solidarity, of the people of Austria.
“When you hear about it, you have so much sympathy for the people, maybe you could have known someone,” Felix Platzer, a passerby at the vigil, told the Reuters news agency.
“This is an example of solidarity and you grieve together and together it is easier to cope,” he added.
Three days of mourning have been declared in Austria, and a nationwide minute’s silence will be held on Wednesday at 10:00 local time in memory of the victims.
Flags on the Hofburg Palace in Vienna, where the President Alexander Van der Bellen has his office, will fly at half mast.
The school where the attack took place will remain closed until further notice.
Austrian Chancellor Christian Stocker said Tuesday was a “dark day in [the] history of our country” and declared the shooting a “national tragedy”.
“A school is more than just a place to learn – it is a space for trust, for feeling comfortable and for having a future,” he told the conference, adding this safe place had been “violated”.
“In these difficult hours, being human is our strongest point,” he said.
The attack “strikes our country right at its heart”, Stocker said in the immediate aftermath.
“These were young people who had their whole lives ahead of them.”
Gunman was former student
The gunman, who has not yet been named, was a former Dreierschützengasse student who didn’t graduate from the school, Interior Minister Gerhard Karner told a news conference on Tuesday afternoon.
Karner added it was now the job of the criminal office to investigate.
Officers also confirmed the gunman was not known to police before the attack.
Current information suggests the shooter legally owned the two guns used in the attack and had a firearms licence, police added.
Local media outlets have reported the suspect used a pistol and a shotgun to carry out the shooting.
He was an Austrian man from the wider Graz region who acted alone, police said.
Police said they began an operation at 10:00 local time (09:00 BST) after gunshots were heard from inside the school.
A specialist Cobra tactical unit – which handles attacks and hostage situations – was deployed to the school, police said.
Authorities evacuated all pupils and teachers from the building. Police confirmed the school had been secured and there was no further danger posed to members of the public.
“Locally, we have seen people crying on the streets, talking to friends that have been at the school when the shooting happened, who have maybe lost a friend,” said Fanny Gasser, a journalist for the Austrian daily newspaper Kronen Zeitung.
She told BBC News “everybody knows somebody” at the school because Graz – despite being the second-largest city in Austria – is “not that big”.
She said the school was likely unprepared for the possibility of an attack. “We are not living in America, we are living in Austria, which seems like a very safe space.”
Local mayor Elke Kahr called the incident a “terrible tragedy”.
European Commission Vice-President Kaja Kallas said she was “deeply shocked” by the news. “Every child should feel safe at school and be able to learn free from fear and violence,” she posted on X.
Witnesses heard gunshots
Astrid, a woman living with her husband Franz in the ground floor flat of the residential building next to the school, told the BBC she had just finished hanging out the washing when she heard gunfire.
She said: “I heard shots. Lots of them, one after the other. ‘Poof… poof… poof…. poof… poof…’ again and again. I went into the flat to my husband and I told him: ‘Someone is shooting!’
“He thought it was maybe something else, but we heard I reckon 30 to 40 shots. Then my husband rang the police.”
“We saw one pupil at the window – it looked like he was getting ready to jump out… but then he went back inside,” Franz said, adding they also saw a teacher.
The pair later saw the students had “got out of the school on the ground floor, from the other side” where they “gathered on the street”, Franz said.
Queues to give blood
By Tuesday afternoon, long queues had 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 news agency.
“Today I’m here because I wanted to do something. I felt helpless with the news,” Johanna, 30, said.
Another person standing in line told Reuters giving blood felt like the “only way possible to help”.
