VIENNA, Austria — A tragic event unfolded in the Austrian city of Graz on Tuesday, where at least nine people lost their lives and 12 more were injured during a shooting incident at a school. The suspect involved in the shooting also died, as reported by the city’s mayor.

The incident took place at the BORG Dreierschützengasse high school, located approximately a kilometer away from Graz’s historic center. Following an emergency call at 10 a.m., special forces were deployed to the scene. By 11:30 a.m., police communicated on social network X that the school had been evacuated and everyone was moved to a secure meeting location.

The perpetrator was identified as a 21-year-old Austrian male, who was in possession of two firearms that he appeared to have legally acquired. Authorities are currently investigating the motive behind the attack. It was revealed that the suspect took his own life in a restroom after carrying out the fatal shootings.

Austrian Interior Minister Gerhard Karner said at a press conference in Graz that the shooter was a former student at the school who didn’t finish his studies.

Austrian Chancellor Christian Stocker said there would be three days of national mourning, with the Austrian flag lowered to half-staff and a national minute of mourning at 10 a.m. Wednesday. He said that it was “a dark day in the history of our country.”

Police deployed in large numbers, with police and other emergency vehicles guarding the area around the school and with at least one police helicopter flying above the area, according to photos published by the regional newspaper Kleine Zeitung.

Graz, Austria’s second-biggest city, is located in the southeast of the country and has about 300,000 inhabitants.

Austrian Chancellor Christian Stocker, who is going to Graz, said the shooting “is a national tragedy that deeply shocks our whole country.”

“There are no words for the pain and grief that all of us — the whole of Austria — feel now,” he wrote in a statement posted on X.

President Alexander Van der Bellen said that “this horror cannot be captured in words.”

“These were young people who had their whole lives ahead of them. A teacher who accompanied them on their way,” he said.

“Schools are symbols for youth, hope and the future,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen wrote on X. “It is hard to bear when schools become places of death and violence.”

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