Austrian school shooter planned attack but motive still unclear, officials say

A man who killed nine students and a teacher at his former school in Austria and then took his own life planned the attack in detail, investigators have revealed.

However, he appears to have shot his victims at random, and investigators have still not been able to ascertain his motive.

The 21-year-old had left the BORG Dreierschutzengasse high school in Graz three years previously, breaking off his studies after attending for three years, police say.

They said they knew of no personal connection between the gunman and the students he had shot, but that one of the two teachers he shot had once taught him.

Officials were still investigating whether that was a factor in the attack.

The incident prompted Austria to declare three days of national mourning and large numbers of candles have been laid in Graz’s main square and outside the school.

The assailant, an Austrian man who lived with his mother near Graz and whom officials have declined to identify, used a Mercury double-barrelled shotgun and a Glock 19 handgun in the shooting.

Michael Lohnegger, the head of Styria province’s criminal police office, said that he arrived at the school on Tuesday morning with a backpack containing the weapons, and put on equipment including shooting glasses and a headset in the bathroom before starting a roughly seven-minute shooting spree.

The gunman opened fire indiscriminately on the building’s third floor before shooting open the locked door of a fourth-floor classroom and again firing indiscriminately, Mr Lohnegger told a news conference.

Mr Lohnegger said that the gunman had enough ammunition to continue shooting and it was unclear why he had not.

The gunman then returned to the bathroom and fatally shot himself in the head.

A search of his home uncovered a farewell letter and a video, which Mr Lohnegger said added up to “an apology directed to his family for the crime and a general thank you”, but offered “no indication for the motive”.

Authorities also found a handwritten note that showed he had planned the attack “down to the smallest detail”, setting out how he would proceed but giving no date for the crime.

The note had suggested that he had lacked enough time to build a fully functional pipe bomb. Investigators had found one, but it would not have worked.

Mr Lohnegger said a picture had emerged of a “very introverted person” who largely did not take part in real-world activities and that his great passion was playing online first-person shooter games.

“But even here, there is no information from his personal surroundings that he ever expressed any anger or resentment towards the school, students or teachers,” he added.

The man had no previous police record and “there were definitely no particular problems with him at this school”.

The gunman was in unspecified vocational training at the time of the attack, investigators added.

He had bought the shotgun legally in Graz in early April and the handgun was bought from another shop in the city in late May.

He had a licence to own the weapons that required a report from a psychological expert, which was allegedly produced in March.

The gunman also took part in shooting practice five times in March at a shooting club in Graz using a hired firearm, Mr Lohnegger said.

Six girls and three boys aged between 14 and 17 and a teacher were killed in the attack.

Eleven people were wounded and authorities said that their lives were not in danger.