President Nikos Christodoulides on Tuesday night said he was “devastated” by the school shooting which took place in the Austrian city of Graz earlier in the day.
“My thoughts are with all those affected by this senseless act of violence, especially families who lost loved ones. We stand with [Chancellor Carl Stocker] and the Austrian people. Schools should be safe places for our children to thrive without fear,” he said in a post on social media.
A former pupil of the school killed 10 people inside the building before turning the gun on himself, with news website Reuters describing the incident as “the worst school shooting in Austria’s modern history”.
Austrian Interior Minister Gerhard Karner said that in addition to the 11 dead, another dozen people had been injured.
The Austrian police said the shooter was a 21-year-old man, that he was operating alone, and that his motive for the act remained unclear.
He was found dead in a bathroom.
Stocker called the shooting a “dark day”, adding, “there are no words for the pain and grief that we all – all of Austria – are feeling right now”.
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