Graz (Austria) (AFP) - An attack on a school in southeastern Austria by a former student has left nine people dead, authorities said Tuesday, in a rare case of deadly gun violence in the Alpine country.

Heavily armed police, a helicopter and paramedics descended upon the school in Graz, where 10 people including the alleged lone shooter were killed, regional police said.

Six of the victims were female and three male, authorities later confirmed without specifying their ages. Twelve people suffered severe injuries.

Police said the situation was “secure” and support was being provided to witnesses and those affected.

The suspect acted alone and took his own life in the school toilet, police said, adding his motive remained unknown.

Later on Tuesday, Austrian Chancellor Christian Stocker declared three days of national mourning to remember the victims, saying the country had witnessed “an act of unimaginable violence”.

According to the police, the alleged perpetrator is a 21-year-old Austrian from the wider Graz region. The perpetrator used two weapons he had owned legally to carry out the attack.

The suspected shooter was a former student at the school, but had not finished his studies, Interior Minister Gerhard Karnert told reporters.

“It’s a disaster, simply terrible. After all, it’s about children,” Hasan Darsel, a restaurant owner in the area, told the newspaper Kronen Zeitung.

- ‘Deeply shocked’ -

After arriving in Graz, Stocker described the shooting as “a national tragedy”, adding that it was “a dark day” for Austria.

Condolences poured in from across Europe.

The European Union’s top diplomat Kaja Kallas said she was “deeply shocked” when she heard about the shooting.

“Every child should feel safe at school and be able to learn free from fear and violence,” Kallas posted on X.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said “our thoughts are with our Austrian friends and neighbours and we mourn with them” after the school shooting he called “horrific”.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban offered his “deepest condolences to Chancellor @_CStocker and the people of Austria” via social media.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said “the news from Graz touches my heart” while Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni expressed her sympathies to the families of the victims following the “tragic news”.

Attacks in public are rare in Austria, which is home to almost 9.2 million people and ranks among the 10 safest countries in the world, according to the Global Peace Index.

School shootings are also much more uncommon in Europe than in the United States but in recent years Europe has been shaken by attacks at schools and universities, that were not connected to terrorism.

In France on Tuesday, a teaching assistant was killed at a school in Nogent in the east following a knife attack.

In January 2025, an 18-year-old man fatally stabbed a high school student and a teacher at a school in northeastern Slovakia.

In December 2024, a 19-year-old man stabbed a seven-year-old student to death and injured several others at a primary school in Zagreb, Croatia.

In December 2023, an attack by a student at a university in central Prague left 14 people dead and 25 injured.

A few months earlier that year, a 13-year-old gunned down nine fellow classmates and a security guard at an elementary school in downtown Belgrade.