VIENNA: An attack on a school in Graz, Austria reportedly by a former student has left several people dead, police said Tuesday, in a rare case of deadly gun violence in a European school.

Heavily armed police, a helicopter and paramedics descended upon the school in Graz, where 10 people including the alleged lone shooter were killed and “several severely injured”, regional police said on X.

“The identities of those affected are currently being established,” police said, adding the situation as secure and support was being provided to witnesses and those affected.

Graz Mayor Elke Kahr told Austrian press agency APA that 10 people including several students and one adult were killed.

Authorities say the assailant was a 21-year-old man who had two weapons, which he appeared to have owned legally. Austrian media reported the suspect is believed to be a former student who also took his own life.

“The situation is very unclear at the moment,” police sources told Austria’s APA news agency.

“It’s a disaster, simply terrible. After all, it’s about children,” Hasan Darsel, a restaurant owner in the area, told the newspaper Kronen Zeitung.

Nine people have been killed in a school shooting in the city of Graz, Austria. Armed police descended on the BORG Dreierschützengasse high school along with other emergency services, including officers from a counter-terror Cobra unit, 158 paramedics and helicopter.

Austria’s public broadcaster, ORF, reported the suspected gunman is believed to have killed himself, taking the number of deaths to 10. The shooter was a 21-year-old man.

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Austrian police confirmed he killed himself in a toilet at the school. Eight children and one adult, believed to be a teacher, were confirmed dead by Austrian police.

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VIENNA (AP) — Nine people were killed in a shooting at a school in the Austrian city of Graz on Tuesday, and the suspected perpetrator also died, authorities said.

Police said they believe the assailant acted alone. They said on social network X that 10 people were dead, including the shooter, and “several” were seriously wounded.

Mayor Elke Kahr described the events as a “terrible tragedy,” the Austria Press Agency reported. It added that the fatalities included students and at least one adult. Officials didn’t immediately give information on the perpetrator.

Special forces were among those sent to the BORG Dreierschützengasse high school, about a kilometer (over half a mile) from Graz’s historic center, after a call at 10 a.m. At 11.30 a.m., police said that the school had been evacuated and everyone had been taken to a safe meeting point. They wrote that the situation was “secured” and there is no longer believed to be any danger.

Photos from the scene showed a large police deployment, including at least one helicopter and emergency vehicles around the school.

Graz, Austria‘s second-biggest city, is located in the southeast of the country and has about 300,000 inhabitants.

Austrian Chancellor Christian Stocker, who was on his way to Graz, said the shooting “is a national tragedy that deeply shocks our whole country.”

“There are no words for the pain and grief that all of us — the whole of Austria — feel now,” he wrote in a statement posted on X.

President Alexander Van der Bellen said that “this horror cannot be captured in words.”

“These were young people who had their whole lives ahead of them. A teacher who accompanied them on their way,” he said.

“Schools are symbols for youth, hope and the future,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen wrote on X. “It is hard to bear when schools become places of death and violence.”

Some weapons, such as rifles and shotguns that must be reloaded manually after each shot, can be purchased in Austria from the age of 18 without a permit. Gun dealers only need to check if there’s no weapons ban on the buyer and the weapon gets registered in the central weapons register.

Other weapons, such as repeating shotguns or semi-automatic firearms, are more difficult to acquire — buyers need a gun ownership card and a firearms pass.

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At least 10 people have died in Austria’s deadliest mass shooting in the country’s second largest city.

A shooter has opened fire at a high school in Austria’s second most populous city, Graz. At least 10 people have died, including the suspect, according to the city’s mayor and police.

The attack on Tuesday represents the Central European nation’s deadliest mass shooting outside wars.

Here is what we know so far:

What happened — and where?

The shooting occurred in the morning at the BORG Dreierschutzengasse secondary school in Graz, the capital of the southern Austrian province of Styria.

Police were called to the school at around 10am (0800 GMT) after shots were heard there.

Graz is about 200km (124 miles) southwest of Vienna and is home to historic landmarks like the Uhrturm, or Clock Tower, on the Schlossberg hill. The city of more than 300,000 people is the second most populous in the country after Vienna.

Known for its universities and colleges, Graz is a demographically diverse city. Foreign nationals make up a quarter of its population with Croatians, Romanians, Germans and Bosnians the four largest groups, according to the city administration, as of January.

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What do we know about the victims?

At least 10 people have been killed, the Austrian news agency APA quoted Graz Mayor Elke Kahr as saying.

The police and Kahr independently confirmed that the suspect was among the dead.

Police said at least 30 people were injured.

It is unclear whether the dead and injured are primarily students, teachers or others at the school.

What do we know about the shooter ?

Austrian newspapers Kurier and Salzburger Nachrichten newspapers identified the suspect as a 22-year-old former student. Salzburger Nachrichten said he had been a victim of bullying.

APA and Kronen Zeitung, Austria’s largest newspaper, separately reported that the suspect was found dead in a bathroom.

The local police wrote in an X post that they were operating on the assumption that the perpetrator was acting alone.

What are the authorities saying?

Austrian Chancellor Christian Stocker described the attack as a “national tragedy” in a statement posted on X.

“The rampage at a school in Graz is a national tragedy that has deeply shaken our entire country,” he wrote. “There are no words for the pain and grief that we all – all of Austria – are feeling right now.”

President Alexander Van der Bellen also released a statement on X, saying: “These were young people who had their whole lives ahead of them. A teacher who accompanied them on their journey. There is nothing that can ease the pain felt by the parents, grandparents, siblings and friends of the murdered people at this moment.”

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What is the latest on the ground?

The police wrote that a police operation was under way at the scene.

The local police wrote on X: “The school was evacuated and all persons were taken to a safe meeting point” at 11:31am (09:31 GMT) on Tuesday. They added that officers had secured the school and they did not anticipate any further danger for anyone.

The police added that authorities had earmarked ASKO Stadium, home of local football club ESK Graz, as the designated meeting point for parents of students at the school. A police helicopter, officials said, was being used in the rescue operation.

Earlier, ambulances were seen outside the school.

Have there been shootings in Austria in the past?

Yes.

Mass shootings in Austria date back to at least 1981 when a machinegun and grenade attack killed two people and injured 30 at a synagogue. The attack targeted people leaving a bar mitzvah ceremony. In 1982, two Palestinian men born in Jordan and Iraq were sentenced to life imprisonment for that attack.

In 2013, an alleged deer poacher shot dead three policemen and an ambulance driver while being chased by the police near the Austrian town of Annaburg. The perpetrator was identified as Alois Huber.

In 2016, a gunman opened fire at a concert in the town of Nenzing, killing two people and fatally shooting himself. Eleven people were injured. The shooter, Gregor Schallert, had been involved in a heated argument with his girlfriend before he opened fire, according to local reports.

In 2020, four people were killed and 23 were injured in a shooting in Vienna hours before the capital was to enter lockdown during the COVID-19 pandemic. The gunman was shot dead by the police. Authorities described the shooter as a sympathiser of the ISIL (ISIS) armed group.

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How common is gun ownership in Austria?

Gun ownership is common in Austria with about 30 firearms per 100 people, according to the independent research project Small Arms Survey. This makes Austrians one of the most heavily armed populations in Europe.

Machineguns and pump action guns are banned in Austria.

Official authorisation is required to own revolvers, pistols and semiautomatic weapons. To own rifles and shotguns, Austrians require a firearms licence, a valid hunting licence or a membership at traditional shooting clubs.