Woe and shock in the second city of Austria

The Graza has a shock, sadness and unbelief, after the worst shooting in modern Austrian history has left 11 people killed, including the militant.

“We could never imagine what it could have happened here in our place. This is a sad day for the whole city,” said Ray, who lives near the school.

Over the years, Austria got rid of the pain of mass school shots.

But all this changed on Tuesday at about 10:00, when the former student ran AMOK in the high school in Drasteczengas, near the main station in the second largest city in Austria.

Morning classes were conducted when the attack took place. Some students at school would pass the final exams.

The police took 17 minutes to take control.

By the time more than six victims and three men were killed. A few hours later, a woman’s seventh victim died at the hospital. Several others remain in the hospital, some with critical injuries.

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

A former student who never passed his last exams, he was reportedly a victim of bullying.

A local resident of Ray told me that she could not understand how such an attack could happen in her well -ordered city.

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

Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen said: “This horror cannot be expressed in words. What happened today at school in Graza, goes to our country right in the heart. These were young people who all their lives were ahead of them. The teacher who accompanied them on the way.”

He said that at this point, “nothing could ease the pain that parents, grandparents, siblings and friends and friends feel.”

Austrian Chancellor Christian Stoker, who rushed to the place with the Minister of Internal Affairs Gerhard Carner, called it a “national tragedy that shook the whole country.” He said there were no words to describe “the pain and grief we are all – all Austria – feels.”

Three days of mourning were announced in Austria. Flags at the Hofburg Palace in Vienna, where President Van der Bellen will fly for six months.

In Austria, there is one of the most armed civilian populations in Europe, about 30 firearms per 100 people, a survey of an independent research project.

But school shots are rare here. There have been several incidents that have participated much fewer victims over the years:

• In 2018, a 19-year-old guy was shot dead by another youth in Mestelbach, north of Vienna
• In 2012, his father shot his father in St. Peelten
• In 1997, a 15-year-old guy killed a teacher in Zeberna and seriously injured another
• And in 1993, a 13-year-old boy in Hauslisten seriously injured the main teacher and then killed himself.

The most violent attack on Austria’s weapons in recent years has taken place in the heart of Vienna in November 2020. Four people were killed and 22 were injured when the convicted jihadist ran the center of the city’s fire before he was shot dead.

Machine guns and pumping weapons are prohibited, and revolvers, pistols and semi -automatic weapons are only allowed with official permission. Rifles and rifles are allowed with a gunshot -weapon license or a valid hunting license or for traditional shooting members.

It is clear that Graz’s militant legally possessed both firearms, and he had no conviction. One of his weapons was purchased only the day before the attack, one report said.

At the school, the young man watched the police on a bicycle as a police officer through a security school.

“It’s awful,” he told me. “This is my house. I can’t understand how many people my age are dead. It shouldn’t happen here.”