A quiet morning in Austria’s second-largest city was shattered Tuesday when a suspected shooter opened fire at BORG Dreierschützengasse school, leaving 10 dead, including students, an adult, and the gunman, according to Mayor Elke Kahr.
The attack, which unfolded shortly after 10 a.m., prompted a swift response from police, who deployed special forces and a helicopter to the scene in Graz, a city of 300,000 in southeastern Austria.
“Gunshots were heard in the building,” police posted on X, confirming an ongoing operation.
An hour later, authorities were still securing the area, with the Interior Ministry acknowledging multiple fatalities but withholding further details.
The motive remains unclear, and police sources told Austria’s APA news agency that the situation was “very unclear.”
Efforts to reach police and Interior Ministry officials for comment were unsuccessful.
School shootings are rare in Europe, far less frequent than in the U.S., but recent years have seen a disturbing uptick.
In December 2024, a 19-year-old stabbed a seven-year-old to death at a primary school in Zagreb, Croatia, injuring others.
A month earlier, a January 2025 attack in northeastern Slovakia left a student and a teacher dead.
In 2023, a student in central Prague killed 14 and injured 25 at a university, while a 13-year-old in Belgrade gunned down eight classmates and a security guard.
Austria, a nation of 9.2 million, ranks among the world’s safest, according to the Global Peace Index.
Public attacks like this are rare in the Alpine country, making Tuesday’s tragedy all the more jarring.
EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas expressed horror at the news. “Every child should feel safe at school and be able to learn free from fear and violence,” she wrote on X. “My thoughts are with the victims, their families, and the Austrian people in this dark moment.”
