Grief and shock in the second city of Austria

There is shock, sadness and unbelief in Graz after leaving 11 people killed in contemporary Austrian history, including Sagittarius.

“We could never imagine that this could happen here in our place. It’s a sad day for the whole city,” said a river, who lives near the school.

For many years, Austria was spared by the pain of mass school firing.

But all this changed around 10:00 on Tuesday, when a former student released Amok to Dreierschützengasse, near the main station in the second largest city in Austria.

The morning hours were underway when the attack was held. Some students at the school would pass their final exams.

They took 17 minutes to police to put the situation under control.

By the time they were over six casualties and three men were killed. Hours later, a seventh woman victim, an elderly woman, died in hospital. Several others remain in the hospital, some with critical injuries.

The shooter, a 21-year-old Austrian citizen with two firearms, took his life at the school.

A former student who has never passed his last exams, he is reported to have seen as a victim of harassment.

The local resident River told me that it could not understand how an attack could happen like the one in its well -arranged city.

“This area is quiet, safe and beautiful,” she said. “People are nice, school is good.”

Austria President Alexander van der Belen said: “This horror cannot be exposed to words. What happened at school in Graz today is hitting our country right in the heart. These were young people who had their entire lives in front of them. A teacher who accompanied them on the journey.”

He said that at that moment there was nothing to relieve the pain that parents, grandmothers and grandparents, siblings and friends of the killed feel felt. “

Austria Chancellor Christian Stoker, who rushed to the stage with the Minister of Interior Gerhard Carner, called him a “national tragedy that shook the whole country”. He said there were no words to describe “the pain and grief that all of us – the whole Austria – feels.”

Three days of mourning have been announced in Austria. The flag of the Hofburg Palace in Vienna, where President Van der Belen has his office, will fly half a mast.

Austria has one of the most armed civilian groups in Europe, with approximately 30 firearms per 100 people, according to a study of small weapons, an independent research project.

But school firing here is rare. Over the years, there have been several incidents that have participated much less casualties:

• In 2018, a 19-year-old was shot by another youth in Missbach, north of Vienna
• In 2012 in St. Pölten, a student was shot by his father
• In 1997 at a Zöbern 15-year-old killed a teacher and seriously hurt another
• And in 1993, a 13-year-old boy in Howlesten seriously hurt the head teacher and then committed suicide.

The most bulk attacks of weapons in Austria in recent years took place in the heart of Vienna in November 2020. Four people were killed and 22 injured when a convicted jihadist ran through the center of the city opening fire before he was ultimately shot by police.

The machine guns and pistols of the pump are prohibited, while revolvers, pistols and semi -automatic weapons are only allowed with official permission. Rifles and rifles are authorized with a firearm license or a valid hunting license or for members of traditional shooting.

It is believed that Graz’s gunman owned both firearms and he had no criminal record. One of his weapons was bought only the day before the attack, according to one report.

Outside the school, a young man on a bicycle was watching police allowing security vehicles through the security border around the school.

“It’s horrifying,” he told me. “This is my home. I can’t figure out how many people my age are dead. This should not happen here.”