GRAZ, Austria — A former student armed with two firearms opened fire Tuesday morning at a high school in Graz, Austria, killing nine people before taking his own life, The New York Times reports.

Authorities responded to emergency calls around 10 a.m. local time at BORG Dreierschützengasse, a school located in the northwest section of Austria’s second-largest city. More than 300 police officers and 160 emergency medical responders swarmed the campus, including elite COBRA tactical units and helicopter support, according to the New York Times.

The gunman, identified as a 21-year-old from Graz who had previously attended the school but never graduated, was found dead by suicide in a school bathroom, police said. He had entered the building with a pistol and a longer firearm, both of which were recovered at the scene. The weapons had been purchased legally, authorities said.

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Austrian Interior Minister Gerhard Karner confirmed during a press conference that nine people — six females and three males — were killed. Another 12 individuals were injured in the attack. Police have not released the identities or ages of the victims, nor have they confirmed how many were students, citing the ongoing investigation.

“This shooting rampage at a school in Graz is a national tragedy that has deeply shaken our entire country,” Austrian Chancellor Christian Stocker said on social media. He later called it “a dark day” in Austrian history during a televised press statement.

In the immediate aftermath of the shooting, survivors were escorted to the Helmut List Hall, an events venue repurposed for emergency care, NBC News reports. A nearby football stadium served as a reunification site for students and their families. Police urged the public to avoid the area and established a digital platform for witnesses to upload photos and videos to aid investigators.

Mass shootings remain rare in Austria. Between 2000 and 2022, only two such incidents were recorded, according to research from the Rockefeller Institute of Government. Graz, a university city of about 300,000 residents, had last experienced mass violence a decade ago, when a man drove his vehicle into a crowd and then began stabbing bystanders, killing three.

A former student opened fire at a school in Austria’s second-biggest city overnight, fatally wounding 10 people and injuring many others before taking his own life, authorities said.

There was no immediate information on the motive of the 21-year-old man, who had no previous police record. He used two weapons, which he was believed to have owned legally, police said.

“Today is a dark day in the history of our country,” Austrian Chancellor Christian Stocker told reporters in Graz, a city of about 300,000 people in southeastern Austria.

Police officers attend the scene of a shooting at a school in Graz, Austria. (Source: Associated Press)

He called it “a national tragedy that shocks us deeply” and said there would be three days of national mourning, with the Austrian flag lowered to half-staff at official buildings. A national minute of silence is to be held on Wednesday morning in memory of the victims.

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Special forces were among those sent to the BORG Dreierschützengasse high school, about a kilometre from Graz’s historic centre, after calls at 10am (local time) reporting shots at the building. More than 300 police officers were sent to the school, which was evacuated. Footage from the scene showed students filing out quickly past armed officers.

Police said security was restored in 17 minutes.

Police officers attend the scene of a shooting at a school in Graz, Austria. (Source: Associated Press)

The assailant, who acted alone, was a 21-year-old Austrian man who lived near Graz, police said. His name wasn’t released.

Regional police chief Gerald Ortner said two firearms — a long gun and a handgun — were used in the shooting and recovered from the scene, and that the assailant was apparently legally in possession of them. The man took his own life in a bathroom.

Interior Minister Gerhard Karner said the gunman had been a student at the school and hadn’t completed his studies. He didn’t specify when the man left the school or at what age.

Austrian Interior Minister Gerhard Karner, left, and Chancellor Christian Stocker, right, attend a news conference following a shooting at a school in Graz, Austria. (Source: Associated Press)

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Karner said Wednesday morning that six of the dead were female and three male, but didn’t give further information. He said 12 people were wounded. The state hospital in Graz later said that a 10th victim, an adult woman, had died of her injuries, the Austria Press Agency reported.

Austria’s Red Cross said it had deployed 65 ambulances to the scene and 158 emergency staffers were helping treat the injured. In addition, 40 specially trained psychologists were counselling students and parents. The Red Cross also called on locals to come forward and donate blood.

Metin Özden was in his kebab restaurant near the school when he first heard police cars sped by, and then a police helicopter above. He told the Krone newspaper: “I knew something bad had happened… I’ve never seen so many emergency services in my entire life.” He also described to the paper seeing parents walking past his restaurant and crying on the way to the school.

Wednesday’s violence appeared to be the deadliest attack in Austria’s post-World War II history.

In 2020, four people were killed in Vienna and the suspect, a sympathiser of the Islamic State group, also died in a shooting. More than 20 other people, including a police officer, were wounded.

In June 2015, a man killed three people and injured more than 30 when he drove through a crowd in downtown Graz with an SUV.

Austria, which has a strong tradition of hunting, has some of the more liberal gun laws in the European Union.

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.

Gunman kills 9 in a mass shooting at a school in Austria

toggle caption ERWIN SCHERIAU/AFP via Getty Images

BERLIN — A gunman killed nine people Tuesday morning after opening fire at a school in the southern Austrian city of Graz. Police say the shooter is also dead, in what they believe was a suicide.

Police first responded to reports of gunfire at 10 a.m. local time at the Bundesoberstufenrealgymnasium Dreierschützengasse, a secondary school in the northwest of the city. They later found that the gunman had shot and killed nine people and injured 12 others.

Among the dead were six female and three male victims, police said, but they did not specify the ages of the dead or how many were students or teachers.

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Minutes after the shooting started, police arrived and evacuated the school. In all, 300 police officers were at the scene as well as 160 paramedics.

Police say they later found the suspected shooter, a 21-year-old man who was a former student at the school, dead from an apparent self-inflicted gun wound in a school restroom. They say the shooter acted alone and that he brought two guns with him to the school — a rifle and a handgun.

They did not release the suspect’s name or any other details about him, only saying that he was not known to police and that he possessed a license for the guns.

“There are no words to describe the pain, the disbelief and the grief that all of Austria feels right now,” said Austrian Chancellor Christian Stocker at an afternoon press conference in Graz. “Our country has fallen silent in horror.”

Stocker called for three days of national mourning in a country where mass shootings are exceedingly rare.

Austria, with a population of 9 million, has one of the most heavily armed civilian populations in Europe, with an estimated 30 firearms per 100 people. Machine guns and pump action guns are banned, but the ownership of revolvers, pistols and even semi-automatic weapons is allowed as long as applicants go through a permitting and licensing process.

Nine people were killed Tuesday in a school shooting in Austria that occurred despite gun control measures including licensing and registration requirements and a waiting period for firearm purchases.

Update: Graz hospital has now confirmed a tenth victim has died, Reuters reported.

Breitbart News noted that the attack occurred at a school in the city of Graz “around 1000 (0900 BST, 0400 ET).”

The attacker, though unnamed, was identified as a 21-year-old former student of the school who used two firearms that he “legally owned,” BBC reported.

Moreover, BBC pointed out that the attacker had a firearm license.

While it is not yet clear the precise type of firearms used in the attack, GazetaExpress pointed out that registration requirements apply even for rifles and shotguns, as well as a three-day waiting period and minimum purchase age of 18.

The minimum purchase age for revolvers, pistols, and semiautomatic firearms is 21, and a gun ownership card is required. GunFinder noted that “a psychological assessment” is part of the process for acquiring the card and “a justification for gun ownership must be provided.”

Shooting Park Austria described the psychological requirement as a “weapons psychology certificate.”

In a 2018 overview of gun laws in various countries the New York Times noted other gun control requirements in Austria, including the “[completion of] a course on safe gun handling and storage” and passing “a review of criminal history.”

None of these controls prevented a determined attacker from carrying out a heinous act in Austria on Tuesday.

AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio, a member of Gun Owners of America, and the director of global marketing for Lone Star Hunts. He was a Visiting Fellow at the Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal in 2010 and has a Ph.D. in Military History. Follow him on Instagram: @awr_hawkins. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.

The UAE has strongly condemned the school shooting incident that took place in the Austrian city of Graz, which resulted in 9 fatalities and many injuries.

In a statement, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs expressed the country’s strong condemnation of these criminal acts and its permanent rejection of all forms of violence targeting innocent people.

The Ministry expressed “its sincere condolences to the families and relatives of the victims of this sinful criminal act, to the Austrian government and the friendly Austrian people, and its wishes for a speedy recovery for the injured”.

The incident occured when a former student opened fire and left nine people dead, authorities said Tuesday, in a rare case of deadly gun violence in the Alpine country.

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Heavily armed police, a helicopter and paramedics descended upon the school in Graz, where 10 people, including the alleged lone shooter were killed, regional police said.

Six of the victims were female and three male, authorities later confirmed without specifying their ages. Twelve people suffered severe injuries.

Police said the situation was “secure” and support was being provided to witnesses and those affected.

The suspect acted alone and took his own life in the school toilet, police said, adding his motive remained unknown.

Later on Tuesday, Austrian Chancellor Christian Stocker declared three days of national mourning to remember the victims, saying the country had witnessed “an act of unimaginable violence”.

According to the police, the alleged perpetrator is a 21-year-old Austrian from the wider Graz region. The perpetrator used two weapons he had owned legally to carry out the attack.

The suspected shooter was a former student at the school, but had not finished his studies, Interior Minister Gerhard Karnert told reporters.

(With inputs from AFP)