Austrian school shooter was fan of online shooting games

The 21-year-old man who carried out Austria's worst school shooting was an introverted fan of online shooting games, criminal investigators said on Thursday.

The Austrian man, identified by local media as Arthur A., killed 10 people on Tuesday before shooting himself at his former high school in the southern city of Graz, sending shockwaves through Austria, which declared three days of national mourning.

Police found discarded plans for a bomb attack and a non-functional pipe bomb during a search of his home after the shooting in Graz, capital of the state of Styria.

Police are still trying to establish a motive, but Michael Lohnegger, head of Styria's criminal investigation office, said findings indicated the man was very introverted and that his great passion was online first-person shooting games.

"He led an extremely withdrawn life, he didn't want to take part in activities in normal life outside in the real world, he preferred to withdraw into the virtual space," Lohnegger told reporters.

Police said the rampage at the school lasted about seven minutes and that the man shot himself in a toilet about 10 minutes after beginning the attack.

A few minutes earlier, the man entered the school with a rucksack, then went into a bathroom to prepare for his assault. He put on a weapon belt with a hunting knife, donned shooting glasses and a headset and armed himself with a Glock pistol and sawn-off shotgun, police said. He opened fire at random on people on the second and third floors of the school, shooting off the locks to the doors in one of the classrooms he attacked, according to Lohnegger.

Most of the victims were apparently unknown to the shooter, but he did know one of the teachers who died, police said.

PSYCHOLOGICAL EVALUATION

He acquired the guns legally in April and May after passing a psychological evaluation to obtain the necessary permit.

Authorities said the suspect failed to complete his studies at the school. Local media reported the man, who lived with his mother on the outskirts of Graz, felt bullied at the school and wanted revenge. The police declined to confirm this.

Neighbours and officials in the commuter town of Kalsdorf bei Graz, where he lived, described a withdrawn, slight man who usually wore a cap and headphones, covering himself up.

Of over a dozen local residents spoken to about the shooter by Reuters, few wanted to talk at all. Some said they had seen him, but none said they knew him.

Questions about the bullying allegations at the Dreierschutzengasse school the man attended were put to its deputy head, Norbert Urabl, on national broadcaster ORF.

"Bullying is a very delicate topic. Bullying occurs on so many levels that it's very difficult to pinpoint the term bullying in this case," he said.

"But the fact is that, if bullying can be triggered, then more sensitivity is urgently needed to recognise bullying processes earlier."