Students were sitting in their classrooms at a secondary school in Graz, when a 21 -year -old Austrian man shot and killed nine people before killing himself.

Twelve people were injured in Tuesday morning violence, a person died of their injuries in the hospital hours later.

The incident was the deadliest collective shooting in the recent history of Austria and the country has announced a three -day mourning.

The police are still investigating that the gunman – an alumni who did not graduate – attacked.

Here we know till now.

The first shot, through the Dreierschützengasse Secondary School, in the north-west of the grase, about 10:00 local time (09:00 BST), about 10:00 on the main train station, was initially causing confusion about what was happening.

According to the Klein Zitung newspaper, “Was it a shot?”

A student told Die Press that when the shots go out, his teacher immediately closed the class.

Another student told the paper that at first he felt that shots were crackers, but “then screaming there, and we ran away”.

Local resident Astrid, who lives in a building next to the school, told the BBC that he heard 30 or 40 shots. Her husband Franz called the police.

“We saw a pupil at the window – it seemed that he was getting ready to jump out … but then he went back in,” said Franz.

The couple later saw that the students “came out of school on the ground floor, from the other side” where they had gathered on the road “, Franz said.

Officials said that the shooter killed a school bathroom immediately after the gun attack.

Police brought the situation under control in 17 minutes. More than 300 police officers, including an expert cobra strategic unit, who handled attacks and hostage conditions, were deployed in the school.

Six women and three men were killed in the attack, and a seventh woman later died in the hospital. Austria’s APA news agency has reported that seven of those killed were students.

The victims have not yet been nominated by the authorities.

A woman, Torace, told BBC News in the main category of Graz on Wednesday that she knew one of the boys who had died. He was 17 years old.

He said, “I have known this family for a long time, including the son of the family, and knew that he attends the school. I immediately ask to ask if everything is fine. Then they know me in the afternoon, that the boy was one of those slaughtered people,” he said.

“What happened yesterday is completely terrible, the whole Austria is in mourning,” he said. “It is terrible for the whole of Austria.”

Those who were injured were in a stable position on Wednesday, told by the Austrian media.

Police said the 21 -year -old, who has not been named yet, was an Austrian person from the comprehensive Graz region who worked alone.

He was a former Dreerschützengasse student who did not graduate from school, internal minister Gerhard Karner said at a news conference on Tuesday.

In a statement on Wednesday, police said they found a “farewell letter” and a non-functional pipe bomb during the search for the suspect’s house. Officials have not confirmed the purpose of the gunman.

The current information shows that the shooter had two guns used in the legally attack and had an firearm license, the police said.

According to an independent research project, Small Arms Survey, Austria is one of the heaviest armed civilian population in Europe, which has an estimated 30 firearms per 100 individuals.

Machine guns and pump action guns are banned, while revolvers, pistols and semi-automatic weapons are allowed only with the official authority. Rifles and shotguns are allowed for firearm licenses or a valid hunting license, or members of traditional shooting clubs.

School shooting is rare. There have been some incidents over the years including very few casualties:

• In 2018, a 19 -year -old was shot by another youth in Mistaelbac, north of Vienna.
• In 2012 in St. Polen, a disciple was shot by his father
• In 1997, in 1997, in Zabran, a 15 -year -old teacher killed a teacher and seriously injured the other
• In 1993, a 13 -year -old boy seriously injured and then killed himself

In recent years, Austria’s most violent gun attack took place in November 2020 at the center of Vienna. Four people were killed and 22 were injured when a convicted jihadist ran to the center of the inauguration of the city, before he was eventually shot by the police.

Fanny Gesar, a journalist for the Austrian Daily Newspaper Cronon Zitung, told BBC News that the possibility of the school was not ready for the possibility of an attack.

“We are not living in America, we are living in Austria, which looks like a very safe place.”