GRAZ: 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“He led an extremely withdrawn life, he didn’t want to take part in activities in normal life outside in the real world, he preferred to withdraw into the virtual space,” Lohnegger told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 the head 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.

Published in Dawn, June 13th, 2025