GERMANY: FORMER PUPIL GOES ON SHOOTING SPREE AT SCHOOL AND KILLS EIGHTEEN PEOPLE BEFORE KILLING HIMSELF

Record ID: 324541

  • Title: GERMANY: FORMER PUPIL GOES ON SHOOTING SPREE AT SCHOOL AND KILLS EIGHTEEN PEOPLE BEFORE KILLING HIMSELF
  • Date: 27th April 2002
  • Summary: (U4) ERFURT, GERMANY (APRIL 26, 2002) (REUTERS) 1. SLV POLICE IN FRONT OF SCHOOL BUILDING; POLICE IN STREET IN FRONT OF SCHOOL, CORDONING OFF SCHOOL (6 SHOTS) 0.33 2. MV DISTRAUGHT PUPILS AND PARENTS; SCHOOL WITH SIGN READING: HELP! IN WINDOW (4 SHOTS) 1.17 3. SLV POLICEMAN SEEKING SHELTER BEHIND CAR 1.21 4. SLV DISTRAUGHT TEACHERS ON STREET 1.25 5. SCU DISTRESSED PUPILS GATHERING AT SPORTS GROUND (6 SHOTS) 2.07 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 12th May 2002 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: ERFURT, GERMANY
  • Country: Germany
  • Reuters ID: LVABO3GLIZXHY1Z9E94L4QXB62ZC
  • Story Text: German police have said the shooting spree in a school
    at Erfurt in which 18 people died was over and the lone gunman
    was among the dead.

    Police said the 19-year-old killer, a former pupil at
    the Gutenberg secondary school, murdered 14 teachers and three
    pupils. It was not immediately clear if he then killed himself
    or was shot by police.

    "The operation is over," a police spokesman said.

    Police had said initially they believed there were two gunmen.

    The gunmen was apparently a student who refused to take a
    major mathematics exam, a reporter on the scene said, quoting
    a student eyewitness.

    A policeman at the scene said the gunmen had barricaded
    themselves into a classroom with 28 children. They were armed
    with pistols and a long-barrelled weapon.

    A radio reporter near the school said the attackers wore
    masks. A paper note with the word "Help" hung from a window
    and a woman peered out nervously.

    About 700 students between the ages of 10 and 19 attend
    the Gutenberg secondary school in Erfurt.

    Several teenage students were being treated for shock in
    local hospitals, medical officials said. Hundreds of armed
    police surrounded the building. Police set up a tent nearby
    where parents were informed of the whereabouts of their
    children.

    Police officers wearing bulletproof vests crouched behind
    parked cars around the school.

    The shooting coincided with a debate in the German
    parliament on Friday on tightening gun control legislation.

    Germany already has strict laws governing the right to a
    gun but experts say the country is awash with illegal weapons
    smuggled into the country from eastern Europe and the Balkans.

    Erfurt (population 197,350), in formerly communist East
    Germany, was founded in the 13th century and was once home to
    theologian Martin Luther.

    In February, a man shot dead three people and injured
    another near Munich before killing himself in what appeared to
    be a revenge attack on a company that had sacked him and on
    his former school.


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