At least eight people were killed on Tuesday after a gunman opened fire in a school in the city of Graz, the mayor, Elke Kahr, told the Austria Press Agency. The shooter was among the dead, the mayor said in her comments.
The police said that officers at the scene were trying to clarify the situation and coordinate a response that included specially trained COBRA units, Austria’s version of a SWAT team, and a police helicopter.
According to the mayor, there were students and at least one adult among the dead.
Graz is Austria’s second-largest city, after Vienna, and is a vibrant, wealthy university town. It experienced a major mass attack a decade ago, when a man killed three people and wounded about three dozen others after driving a car into crowds on the streets of the city and then attacking bystanders with a knife.
The police said that the man in that attack had a history of domestic violence and that his wife had recently left him.
In the attack on Tuesday, the police said that they had responded to reports of gunfire in a building at a high school in the north of the city at around 10 a.m. local time.
Evacuation of the school was completed before noon and the police said that there was no longer a threat there. A stadium about a mile away was opened as a safe gathering site for students and their parents.
Christopher F. Schuetze is a reporter for The Times based in Berlin, covering politics, society and culture in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
Jim Tankersley is the Berlin bureau chief for The Times, leading coverage of Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
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