Austria falls silent for victims of Graz school shooting

People observed a moment of silence on the main square in Graz on Wednesday (AP)

Austria fell silent for a minute on Wednesday in memory of the 10 victims of a school shooting in Graz that ended with the gunman taking his own life.

Hundreds of people lined the central square in Austria’s second-biggest city; some laid more candles and flowers in front of the city hall, adding to a growing memorial to the victims.

Meanwhile, neighbours and officials painted the picture of the suspect as a withdrawn young man who attracted little attention before Tuesday’s gun rampage.

Authorities have given few details about the 21-year-old, which Austrian media have referred to as Arthur A., except that he failed to complete his studies at the Dreierschutzengasse high school in Graz.

Police said they found a farewell letter and a non-functional pipe bomb when they searched his home.

He is believed to have used two weapons, a shotgun and a handgun, which he owned legally.

“A farewell letter in analogue and digital form was found,” said Franz Ruf, the public security director at Austria’s Interior Ministry.

In the commuter town of Kalsdorf bei Graz, where he lived, residents were stunned to learn the quiet neighbour they barely noticed was behind Austria’s first mass school shooting.

“He was totally inconspicuous. He didn’t attract any negative attention, nor did he integrate into our community in any way,” said Manfred Komericky, mayor of the town.

A number of candles laid in memory of victims were visible in Graz’s main square (Reuters)

The family’s letterbox had been taped over by Wednesday afternoon, any trace of their name no longer apparent. Of over a dozen residents spoken to by Reuters, few wanted to speak at all. Some said they had seen the man. None said they knew him.

Neighbours said the suspect lived with his mother in a ground floor apartment at one end of the estate with leafy gardens over which a large concrete grain silo looms.

Austrian newspapers Kronen Zeitung and Heute published pictures of a slight youth with a long fringe they described as the alleged perpetrator, one of which showed him holding a cat.

According to Heute, investigators said he did not have a personal profile on social media. Police declined to comment.

Details of his life after he left school were scarce. Heute said he struggled to find work. Police found a non-functional pipe bomb and a discarded plan for a bomb attack at his home.

Survivors of the school shooting gathered to mourn the victims (Getty)

Thomas Gasser, 38, a supermarket manager who lived in the building opposite the suspect for years, described him as small and generally wearing a cap and headphones, covered up.

Contact with the family was minimal, Gasser said. “It’s just that we hardly ever saw them,” he explained.

Officials said the suspect opened fire on pupils and staff at the school with a pistol and shotgun before shooting himself in a toilet in the building. Austrian media reported that he felt bullied, though police have not confirmed this.

The massacre on Tuesday was the bloodiest episode in the postwar history of Graz, and eclipsed a previous nadir: the 2015 killing of three people and injuring of many more by a man who drove his vehicle into a crowded Graz shopping street.

The news that the school shooting suspect lived in Kalsdorf was an unwelcome reminder of those days – because the driver in the vehicle attack also lived in the same Graz suburb.

Reuters and Associated Press contributed to this report