The morning of Tuesday, June 10, 2025, has burned itself deep into the soul. Shortly before 10 a.m., a 21-year-old former student with legally bought firearms celebrated a killing spree in the Borg Dreierschützengasse in Graz. Nine students and a teacher died. The perpetrator committed suicide in a toilet room. A wave of horror went through the country.
The long shadows
The new school year has already started again three months after the heaviest killing spree at an educational institution in Austria. But the killing spree throws long shadows, says Bernt Senarclens de Grancy. He is head of the Red Cross rescue control center and was on duty on the day of crime.
In the days before, he recalls, they talked about the amocray in the city center of Graz because it was tenth time. At that time, on June 20, 2015, a man had ran over a man in a targeted manner – three people were killed, 36 injured, ten of them seriously.
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Then the killing spree at the high school in Dreierschützengasse. The first emergency call was received at the rescue control center at 10 a.m. Around 500 people would be at school, it said. Only later should it turn out that it was less, but still to the 400. “Within the first few minutes, the police also informed us that the shots fell and that one has to assume that the number of injuries is high,” said Senarclens de Grancy.
“For us it was about screwing the alarm level so far up so that we have sufficient emergency services. The great unknown was: How many injuries are there really?” Including emergency doctors and emergency services, around 160 forces were deployed.
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Image: Red Cross Styria/Andrè Edlinger
Source: Nachrichten
