GUNMAN OPENS FIRE AT FORMER SCHOOL IN AUSTRIA, AT LEAST 11 DEAD

SCHOOL TRAGEDY • A shooting rocked a school in Graz, Austria, on June 10, 2025. A former student, armed with a pistol and a hunting rifle, opened fire in two classrooms, killing 10 people, mostly students, before taking his own life in a restroom. Several victims sustained head wounds. The country is in shock, reliving the trauma of a previous attack in Graz 10 years ago.

Graz, Austria – A tragedy of profound impact: murderous madness erupted on the morning of June 10 in Austria's second-largest city. An assailant entered a school, opening fire with a rifle. Ten people, mostly students, died under the gunfire. The killer's body was later found in a school restroom; he took his own life with one of the weapons he had pointed at students, teachers, and school staff. A dramatic script repeats itself: weapons, blind violence, and the distress that fuels it.

It was soon learned that the perpetrator of the massacre was a 21-year-old who had attended the Graz school where he returned to wreak havoc. He had never completed his studies, and those years must have been an ordeal for him, if it is true – as initial reconstructions indicate – that he had been a bullied student in the very classroom where he returned in an attempt to end his unbearable anguish.

Heavily armed police, a helicopter, and paramedics rushed to the school in Graz when the alarm was raised, shortly after lessons began. They immediately found nine lifeless bodies, many of them young girls and boys aged between 14 and 18. Among the victims was also a teacher who was outside the building. The toll of the injured was severe from the outset: 28 according to initial estimates, later scaled down to 12, two of whom were in critical condition. A few hours later, it was announced that another person, possibly a woman, had succumbed to their injuries, bringing the grim death toll to 10, not counting the assailant who died by suicide. In a dramatic press conference, law enforcement and local authorities released information about the assailant: the 21-year-old, an Austrian citizen residing in Graz and a former student of the school, acted alone.

He was armed with a legally owned pistol and hunting rifle and fired 40 shots. The motive remains unknown, but all evidence collected suggests a senseless explosion of violence, of which schools have been the scene multiple times, from Columbine to Sandy Hook, to name the most prominent. The list is long, especially in the United States, but also in Europe. Shortly before the news from Graz, in France, a school caretaker was fatally stabbed by a 14-year-old in a school in Nogent, near Paris.

Austria Relives Trauma

Austria is in shock and relives the trauma from 10 years ago, when, also in Graz, on June 20, 2015, a man driving an SUV at high speed crashed into a crowd, killing three people and injuring 34. The perpetrator, a 26-year-old Austrian citizen of Bosnian origin with psychological problems, took his own life in his cell. Chancellor Christian Stocker has declared three days of national mourning, with flags at half-mast across the country and a minute of silence on Wednesday at 10 AM in all public offices.

Condolences and solidarity with Vienna are pouring in from various world leaders. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen remarked, "Schools are symbols of youth, hope, and the future. It is hard to bear when schools become places of death and violence." Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni expressed "My closeness and that of the entire Italian Government to the victims' families, along with a thought I wish to extend to the injured and their loved ones." Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky also expressed his solidarity with Austria, stating that "Ukraine shares this moment of pain with friendly Austria." The grief extends to Italy, particularly Rimini, where the news arrived as the Austrian national football team prepared for their World Cup qualifier against San Marino: before kick-off, a minute of silence was observed in memory of the victims, and the players took the field wearing black armbands.