Austria mourns the loss of the victims of one of the worst attacks

Austria mourns the loss of the victims of one of the worst attacks

The police in Austria searches for information on Wednesday after a shooter opened the fire at his former school in Graz the day before and nine students and a teacher were killed. This shocking act has put the country into a state of grief.

grief for the victims

Numerous people gathered at the scene to hold a minute of silence 24 hours after the killing spree. The city of Graz, the capital of the southern Austrian province of Styria, has experienced the most difficult consequences of one of the worst ceremonies in schools in the history of the country.

Investigations with the perpetrator family

The authorities confirmed that they had searched the home of the 21-year-old Austrian perpetrator. The spokesman for the Graz police, Sabri Yorgun, informed CNN that a functional, self-made bomb, a suicide letter and a video message were found during the search. "We searched the suspect's residential address from the Graz district and were able to find that there was a suicide letter both in digital form and handwritten," said Yorgun in an interview.

The number of victims increases

of the ten fatalities were nine students aged 15 to 17. A victim was found dead when the emergency services arrived on Tuesday morning. The corpses of the other students and several injured children were discovered in the building. The tenth person who died in the hospital on Tuesday evening was a female teacher, as Yorgun confirmed.

international reactions

François Barrot, the French Foreign Minister, said that one of the victims was a French student. "Our sympathy and sympathy apply to his family and friends," said Barrot.

state of health of the injured

All injuries of the attack on Tuesday are now stable. Nine of them are still in the intensive care unit. A victim with facial injuries requires post -operation, while another requires knee surgery.

background of the attack

The police were called at around 10 a.m. local time (4 a.m.) about "several" shots at the school in Graz. A large number of vehicles and a police helicopter were used immediately. The perpetrator, who had previously attended school but did not complete, used both a rifle and a handgun for his bloody deed before taking life in a bathroom, according to the authorities at a press conference.

weapons in Austria

weapons are rare in Austria, as well as in most Central European countries. According to the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, the murder rate with firearms in 2021 was only 0.1 per 100,000 people, compared to 4.5 per 100,000 people in the United States. However, the gun ownership rate in Austria is higher than in most European countries; After the Small Arms Survey there are 30 civil firearms per 100 citizens.

similar incidents in the past

In recent years, a few top -class violent incidents have been recorded in Austria. In October last year, the mayor of a North Austrian city was shot, as was another victim. In February, a 23-year-old stabbed five passers-by in southern Austria, which the police classified as arbitrary attack.

The reporting of CNN about this incident was supported by Rob Picheta, Lauren Kent and Saskya Vandoorne.