Nick Thorpe
Central Europe Correspondent
Reporting fromGraz, Austria
Watch: Tearful Graz residents light candles at Austrian school shooting vigil
Austria has held a minute of silence for 10 people killed in a school shooting, after thousands gathered for a candlelight vigil for the victims on Tuesday evening.
Police said the 21-year-old suspect, a former student, took his own life in a school bathroom shortly after the gun attack in Graz on Tuesday – the deadliest in the country’s recent history.
Police said in a statement on Wednesday that they had found a “farewell letter” and a non-functional pipe bomb during a search of the suspect’s home. Authorities have not commented on the gunman’s possible motive.
The incident, which left a further 11 people injured, took place at Dreierschützengasse secondary school in the north-west of the city.
Six females and three males were killed in the attack, while a seventh female later died in hospital. Austria’s APA news agency has reported that seven of those killed were pupils.
Three days of mourning have been declared in Austria, and a nationwide minute’s silence was held on Wednesday at 10: 00 local time in memory of the victims. The Austrian flag has been lowered to half-mast on all public buildings.
After the minute’s silence in Graz’s main square, one woman, Tores, told BBC News that she knew one of the boys who had died. He was 17.
“I’ve know this family for a long time, including the son of the family, and knew that he attended that school. I rang immediately, to ask if everything is OK. Then they let me know at midday, that the boy was one of those slaughtered,” she said.
“What happened yesterday is completely awful, the whole of Austria is in mourning,” she said. “This is terrible for the whole of Austria.”
At the vigil on Tuesday night, Graz residents said they wanted to turn the city’s main square into a sea of candles, which they did.
In the whispering silence, thousands of mostly young people gathered over the course of the evening, alone or clutching the arms or shoulders of their friends. They lit candles, cried, or stood for a while in prayer or contemplation.
Then they slowly came forward to hand candles to volunteers, who arranged them carefully on the steps of the fountain.
The Archduke Johann fountain is known as the heart of the old town
Read More