Reuters
Police officer walks towards the flat of a 21-year-old suspect
The abandoned plan for the bomb attack was found at the home of a suspected gunman in a school shooting in Austria, police said.
Police in the southeastern city of Glaz discovered a pipe bomb that was not working and a “farewell” letter and video during the search, they said in a statement.
Ten people were killed in the attack at a secondary school on Tuesday. This is the most deadly in the country’s recent history.
Police say the suspect, a 21-year-old former student, took his life in the school bathroom shortly after the attack. Authorities have yet to draw conclusions about the gunman’s possible motives.
The incident in which 11 more people were injured took place at Dreierschzenges Junior High School, northwest of the city.
Six women and three men were killed in the attack, and a seventh woman later died in the hospital.
The victims were teachers and nine students between the ages of 14 and 17, police said. All were Austrian citizens except for the Poles.
The 11 injured people between the ages of 15 and 26 are not in danger, police said.
Police say the suspect was born in Styria, the area where Glaz sits, and lived with his single mother, an Austrian, in the Glaz Mgeven area.
They added that his father is of Armenian origin and had not lived with them since his parents’ separation.
Current information suggests that the shooter legally owns two guns used in the attack, a pistol and a shotgun, and had a firearm license, police said. They added that the guns will be tested forensically.
The gunman, who has not yet been named, had not graduated from school, Home Minister Gerhard Kerner told a previous press conference. He was unknown to authorities prior to the attack, police also confirmed.
The evidence and analysis of data storage devices will continue over the coming weeks, with hundreds of people interviewed, they said.
The incident has been reconstructed to shed light on how the events unfolded, police added.
They said they arrived at school six minutes after the initial emergency call was made at 10:00 Tuesday, and a quick response unit and expert Cobra tactical force handling the attack and hostage situation had arrived by 10:17.
Stilian police said the swift response “seems to have saved some lives.”
Police have increased security measures around schools in the city since the attack.
Local media reports that relatives of victims and school students are being cared for at a crisis intervention centre set up across the road from the school.
The teacher there told news agency AFP that he escaped narrowly after finding himself in the hallway with the shooter.
Paul Nitsche, a professor of religion, said he opened the door to the upper floors of the school when he heard the gunshot and worked for himself.
The 51-year-old said he ran out of the room and saw the gunman while he was in the hallway on the floor below.
“He was about to shoot at the door [of a classroom] He’s open with a rifle,” he said. “He was busy […] And I didn’t look around much either […] I didn’t stroll around. ”
Astrid, who lives with her husband Franz in the residential building next to the school, told the BBC she had just finished her laundry when she heard 30-40 gunshots.
“We saw a student in the window – he seemed ready to pop out… but he went back inside,” Franz said.
The couple later saw students leaving school and gathering on the streets.
Watch: Tears of Tears Residents Shoot and Light Candles at Austrian School
After the attack, three days of mourning was declared in Austria, and a nationwide silence took place at 10:00 local time (08:00 GMT) on Wednesday to commemorate the victims. The Austrian flag was hanged to the mast half of all public buildings.
After silence in the main square of Glaz, a woman told BBC News that she knew one of the boys who died. He was 17 years old.
“I had known this family for a long time and, including the family’s son, I knew he attended that school. I immediately asked if everything was okay and they informed me that the boy was one of the people who were slaughtered,” she said.
The incident is the most deadly mass shooting in recent Austria history.
In 2020, jihadist gunman Kuzitim Fejrai died four and injured 23 people in a rampage through Vienna’s busy nightlife district.
Meanwhile, in 2016, a gunman fired at a concert in the town of Nentz, killing two people before he was dead. Eleven other people were injured in the attack.
