Vigils held in Graz and country enters period of mourning as details of 21-year-old former pupil’s bomb plot emerge
A 21-year-old former student who shot dead 10 people including pupils and a teacher at his former school in Austria before killing himself had planned to detonate a homemade explosive at the site, police have said.
As the small Alpine country came to a standstill to remember the dead, security officials said on Wednesday that the gunman, named in local media as Arthur A, had built a pipe bomb, but had then “discarded plans to use it” in his attack on Tuesday in Graz. He told his parents in a suicide note that he had acted of his “own free will”.
The young man, who had left the school two years ago without completing his studies, had apologised to his parents and older siblings but had not disclosed a motive for his attack, officials said.
The shooting – the worst in Austria’s postwar history – took place in 17 minutes on Tuesday morning, just after the start of the third lesson of the day. Many children were sitting exams at the time. Eyewitnesses described how the perpetrator had fired through classroom doors using a shotgun, subsequently shooting at victims with a pistol. Pupils were told by teachers to lie flat on the floor and to barricade themselves in rooms, using chairs to block the doors.
Police arrived at the scene at 10.06am after receiving a call from a woman living close to the school at 10am, who had heard shots.
The killer’s mother had reportedly alerted police 24 minutes after receiving what has been described as a farewell video from her son. But by the time she had seen it, he was already carrying out the attack.
Of the nine people shot dead at the school, six were female and three were male. The pupils were Austrian citizens, aged between 14 and 17, and one Polish citizen. The eldest, a 59-year-old female teacher, died from her injuries on Tuesday evening.
Read More: Austrian school shooter planned to detonate pipe bomb, say police
