Courses are canceled for a minimum of every week, however college students saved coming to their faculty on Wednesday morning, the day after a lethal capturing there surprised Austria.
They gathered throughout the road from the highschool, in Graz, the place a former pupil killed a minimum of 10 individuals on Tuesday, in a spot cordoned off from different mourners, well-wishers and reporters.
They had been struggling, like so a lot of their compatriots, to make sense of the form of violence they see on tv from America however by no means anticipated to see in their very own quiet Alpine metropolis.
“We’re simply speechless — this appears to have come from nowhere,” mentioned Simone Saccon, 20, a college pupil who has spent his life in Graz. He lives close to the varsity, the BORG Dreierschützengasse, and was amongst these gathered outdoors on Wednesday.
“It’s one thing you think about occurs in main cities or within the U.S., however that it will occur right here?” he added.
Austria was a nation in mourning on Wednesday. Black flags flapped atop the general public trams in Graz, a well-to-do metropolis that’s the nation’s second-largest, after Vienna.
At 10 a.m., the trains stopped working briefly as all of Austria noticed a minute of silence to honor the victims.
There was no additional hazard to the general public, the police had mentioned, although the authorities confirmed that they had discovered an unexploded pipe bomb on the assailant’s dwelling. The 21-year-old shooter had left what officers known as a “farewell letter” and a video message to his dad and mom, then returned to the varsity the place he by no means graduated.
He opened hearth with a handgun and a shotgun earlier than killing himself in a college lavatory, in response to the police.
Officers mentioned that the be aware had achieved little to demystify why the younger man, who legally obtained his weapons, had launched into the lethal faculty capturing — considered one of Europe’s worst up to now decade. Franz Ruf, public safety director on the Austrian Inside Ministry, instructed the tv channel ORF that the letter didn’t appear to incorporate a motive for the assault.
And so the nation, like so many communities throughout the USA and world wide which have endured comparable tragedy, was left to marvel what had gone improper.
“What’s actually essential now’s to speak, to be silent collectively, to hear,” mentioned Paul Nitsche, 51, an evangelical pastor who teaches faith on the faculty and who was standing on the road in entrance of the mourning space for the scholars.
The Austrian chancellor, Christian Stocker, canceled appointments on Tuesday to journey to Graz and declared three days of nationwide mourning, together with Wednesday’s interval of silence. Residents and political leaders had been struggling to course of the shock.
On Wednesday morning, a headline on the on-line web site of Kronen Zeitung, the nation’s largest newspaper, declared: “The day after the rampage: Austria cries with Graz.”
Many of the victims had been schoolchildren — six women and three boys, all aged 14 to 17, in response to the police. One other sufferer, a trainer, died later at a hospital.
Pastor Nitsche was alone in a classroom between classes when he heard the photographs. His first intuition was to cover and wait. “It was as silent as if it was the midnight,” he mentioned. “Everybody was taking part in useless — good.”
After it appeared secure, he mentioned, he ran out right into a hallway the place he noticed the gunman making an attempt to get right into a locked door by capturing at it. As he raced away, he noticed the physique of one of many victims, a woman, and saved on working till he noticed the police storming in. “So many uniforms may be actually comforting,” he mentioned.
Outdoors the varsity, makeshift shrines of candles, flowers and stuffed animals lined the perimeter of the varsity. Investigators and firefighters had been nonetheless coming into and exiting the premises, however in any other case the varsity buildings had been darkish and quiet.
Officers canceled faculty for the rest of the week as they resolve the best way to proceed. The summer season break begins in early July, and lots of graduating college students have but to take their remaining exams earlier than probably happening to college.
Belkez Halici, 39, who lives throughout from the varsity, was making ready for work on Wednesday, tears streaming down her face. She had tried to maintain the information from her three youngsters, however that they had heard about it on social media, she mentioned, they usually had been upset and scared.
“I’ve at all times mentioned, faculties right here usually are not secure,” Ms. Halici mentioned. “With individuals coming and going, it’s like a shopping mall.”
