Austrian Police Seek Answers After Mass Shooting at School

21-Year-Old Suspect, Who Studied at the School, Left No Clues in Farewell Note

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GRAZ, Austria — The Austrian authorities were searching for answers on June 11 as to why a 21-year-old gunman shot dead 10 people in a rampage at his former high school before killing himself, one of the worst outbreaks of violence in the country's modern history.

The police said the man, armed with a shotgun and a pistol, acted alone. They are scouring his home and the internet for clues as to why he opened fire on the school in Austria's city of Graz on June 10, before shooting himself in a bathroom.

The incident was hard to properly take in, said a religious studies teacher at the school, Mr. Paul Nitsche, who left his classroom before the gunman tried to enter, and briefly saw him trying to shoot the lock off another door.

"This is something I couldn't even imagine before," he told national broadcaster ORF. "That's what the situation was like as I ran down the stairwell. I thought to myself this wasn't real."