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Eighteen Dead In German School Rampage
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The
worst incident of its kind in Germany's post-war history.
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ERFURT,GERMANY,
April, 26 (IslamOnline &News Agencies) – The assailant is a
recently expelled student at the Gutenberg school in Erfurt, in
eastern Germany. He is now dead, a police spokesman said. He opened
fire inside a German school Thursday, killing 17 people. The dead
included 10 male and seven female victims and the 19-year-old gunman,
police officials told a news conference in Erfurt.
It
is not clear what provoked the shooting spree. Bodies were found all
over the school in classrooms and toilets. Some 180 pupils remained
trapped in the building. Students made frantic calls by mobile phone
to their friends outside.
Police
initially said two teachers and a police officer were killed in the
rampage. Shocked and upset students who fled the shooting reported
seeing a man dressed in black roaming the hallways with a gun.
Police
said they received a call at 11:05 a.m. from the school janitor, who
said someone was shooting in the building.
Ambulances
and police cars massed in front of the school. Several hundred
children were in classes when the shooting began. Describing the scene
as a "picture of horror", a student said the 19-year-old
gunman fled German special forces as they stormed the building, and
shot himself after shutting himself in a classroom. The BBC's Berlin
correspondent, Rob Broomby, says it is the worst incident of its kind
in Germany's post-war history.
It
was Germany's second school shooting in two months. In February, a
22-year-old German who recently lost his job shot and killed two
former bosses and his old high school's principal in a rampage outside
Munich. The 22-year-old man killed the headmaster of a school in
Freising near Munich, before blowing himself up.
It
is the worst school massacre in Europe since the 1996 shooting in
Dunblane, Scotland, when 16 children, a teacher and the gunman died.
The
shooting coincided with a debate in the German parliament Friday on
tightening gun control legislation, Reuters news agency reports.
About
2.3 million people in Germany legally possess a total of some 7.2
million guns, mostly hunting or sports rifles or collectible weapons.
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.
People
wanting to buy a hunting rifle must undergo checks that can last a
year, while those wanting a gun for sport must be a member of a club
and obtain a license from the police.
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