School Dead Shooting in Winnenden
Angela Merkel, Germany’s chancellor, said it was a “day of mourning for the whole of Germany” [EPA]
A teenage former student has killed at least 15 people in a shooting rampage at a school in southwest Germany before turning the gun on himself.
Tim Kretschmer opened fire at the Albertville high school in the small market town of Winnenden, killing nine students and three teachers before stealing a car and fleeing the scene.
The 17-year-old attacker later took his own life after a shootout with police in the town of Wendlingen, near Stuttgart.
There was no immediate indication of motive, but the victims were mostly female: eight of nine students killed were girls, and all three
teachers were women.
Three men were killed later as the suspect fled.
In video
Germany in shock after deadly shooting spree
Dressed in black combats, Kretschmer had entered the school at about 9:30am [08:30 GMT] and opened fire, killing nine students aged between 14 and 15, and three teachers.
A passer-by died after the teenager stole the car, and two passers-by died in the final shootout between Kretschmer and the police.
Erwin Hetger, a regional police chief, said: “He went into the school with a weapon and carried out a bloodbath. I’ve never seen anything like this in my life.”
‘Appalling crime’
Konrad Gelden, a local police chief said the teenager was “constantly reloading his weapon”.
A local police chief said the shooter was “constantly reloading his weapon” [Reuters]
Angela Merkel, Germany’s chancellor, said: “It is unimaginable that in just seconds, pupils and teachers were killed, it is an appalling crime. This is a day of mourning for the whole of Germany.”
Mark Seddon, Al Jazeera’s correspondent in Winnenden, said: “There are many grieving parents. It’s a very, very sad scene.
“He [Kretschmer] was a loner, he didn’t graduate. He had an interest in the occult and his father was a member of a gun club. They had 16 guns in the house.
“He left no message and so far there appears to be no motive.
“People are full of praise for the swift reaction of the police… the death toll could have been higher. The police found other munitions in the grounds so this was clearly planned.”
‘Quiet student’
Petra Wischgoll, a journalist in Cologne, told Al Jazeera that police believe the suspect had finished school last year.
“He was always a very quiet student, who never did anything, and wasn’t really big in the picture,” Wischgoll reported.
“He was very quiet and nobody ever thought of him much. So everybody is very surprised that it was him doing the shooting.”
Lothar Becker, a journalist with ZDF, a German broadcaster, told Al Jazeera the suspect was “a normal young guy, from a family with no financial problems, in an area with no criminal problems”.
He said it was “probably the worst school massacre we ever had in Germany”.
“He fired without any targets, he just fired into the classrooms and hit the students and teachers,” Becker said.
After Kretschmer fled, he shot a passer-by before his final shootout with police, where two passers-by were killed.
Jumping from windows
Witnesses said students jumped from the windows of the school building after the teenager opened fire.
N-TV, a German television station, quoted a witness as saying: “The gunman just sprayed bullets all around him.”
The TV station said the teenager was known to police.
The attack is Germany’s worst school shooting since 2002, when 16 people were killed at a high school in Erfurt in eastern Germany by a 19-year-old former student, who then turned the gun on himself.
In 2002 8 people were injured in Emsdetten. Bastian Bosse was a student at a Realschule in the town. He later found dead with a self-inflicted gunshot to the head. He had left an Internet posting and a video message from his parents’ living room shortly before the attack. The shooter stated that he hated people and was taught to be a “loser” at his school.[1][2] He also left a suicide note on his website, which is now deleted.[3]
So…so…so……2002,2006,2009….every 3-4 years there is a shoot and killing in Germany schools….no matter it is Gymnasium, Realschule or Hauptschule…..this people last time claimed me to be affiliated with a terrorist network..they even had my visum to be renewed every three months instead of 2 years like other students…my movement had been closely monitored……yet they never realised their own youth graduating from their own education system grown with hatred and personility conflict….
I keep no grudge….but hey….who can easily forget something bad happen to him????
