Germany was thrown into deep shock and mourning yesterday after a teenage gunman with a grudge against his former school went on a shooting spree in which nine pupils and six adults were killed before he turned the weapon on himself.
In one of the worst school shootings in German history, the 17-year-old – named locally as Tim Kretschmer – strode into the Albertville secondary school near Stuttgart shortly after 9.30am and shot dead nine pupils, three teachers and one passer-by. He then embarked on a two-hour attempted getaway that culminated in a shoot-out with police. Two men, caught in the crossfire, suffered fatal injuries. Police said Kretschmer then shot himself.
"He went into the school with a weapon and carried out a bloodbath," said regional police chief Erwin Hetger. "I've never seen anything like this in my life."
The attack revived a debate about gun ownership in Germany, which despite strict controls has proved more susceptible than any other country apart from the US to the wretched phenomenon of children being shot dead at their school desks.
Angela Merkel, the chancellor, spoke of a "horrific crime", and the European parliament in Strasbourg observed a minute's silence.
The horror started when Kretschmer, dressed from head to toe in black combat gear, entered class 10D's room brandishing a Beretta pistol and immediately began firing. By the time police squads reached the school, alerted by an emergency call minutes earlier, the bodies of eight girls, one boy and three teachers lay bloodied and motionless on the floor. Some were found still clutching their pens.
One of the teachers is believed to have thrown herself in front of a pupil in the hope of protecting her, and was shot dead on the spot.
Although the shooting appeared indiscriminate, all except one of the victims were female. Speaking at a press conference tonight, Heribert Rech, interior minister of the state of Baden-Wuerttemberg, said he believed the gender imbalance was "significant". The chief investigator, Hans Dieter Wagner, added that Kretschmer had gone "deliberately" into ninth and tenth classes, "to pupils who he knew from his own time at school".
"Don't come into school – he's killed everyone," was how one survivor named Isabelle warned her boyfriend, 17-year-old Marcel Babel, not to enter the classroom. According to Bild newspaper, Kretschmer asked the pupils cowering under desks "Are you not all dead yet?" before fleeing on foot.
But his rampage had not ended. Nearing the local psychiatric hospital, he shot dead one of the staff. He then hijacked a VW Sharan parked nearby, telling the driver to "get me out of here", and drove 40km to an industrial estate in Wendlingen.
Freeing his hostage, he ran to a VW car dealership and demanded a vehicle. Police, alerted to his whereabouts by the first car's driver, cornered him on the forecourt. In the gunfire that ensued, a 46-year-old customer and 36-year-old VW employee were killed. At 12.15, almost three hours after it began, Kretschmer ended his brutal adventure by shooting himself with the 9mm pistol.
Pupils and parents from Winnenden were tonight trying to come to terms with the horror of the day's events. Laura Pino, 17, said she was convinced she was going to be killed. "I was in the next classroom," she said. "We heard shots and the teacher went out to see what was happening. When we realised what was happening we threw ourselves on the floor. It was terrifying. We were on the floor thinking we were going to die." It would take a long time for her to recover from such violence carried out in a place she had considered her sanctuary, she said. "I am so shaken up. To have seen something like that, I don't know, it's awful."
Tonight police and local officials were attempting to explain what could have driven an outwardly ordinary young man to commit such an extraordinary act of violence. Kretschmer, an only child and keen table-tennis player, was described by Helmut Rau, the regional education minister, as "never conspicuous''. He took his final exams last year and had started vocational training. Robin Dinerer, 17, said there had seemed nothing unusual about him. "He seemed to be a completely normal guy, unremarkable. He never seemed aggressive," he said.
But others painted a picture of a troubled mind whose frustrations were bubbling up under the surface of normality. An old classmate told local media he had been depressed because his girlfriend had left him and he had been putting on weight. Another, Mario H, told Bild he tried to buy friends with money but still failed to make himself popular.
In his profile on the social networking site Kwick.de, Kretschmer wrote: "What do I like about myself? Nothing. What do I hate about myself? Nothing." Referencing Robert Musil's novel, Spiegel magazine declared him to be the "the boy without qualities''.
For all his lack of enduring characteristics, he will be remembered as the person who brought terror and suspicion to this unremarkable town on the outskirts of Stuttgart which, until now, prided itself on its peace, quiet and ordinariness.
"Winnenden is such a quiet place: nothing happens here. In all the time I have lived here nothing has happened – and now this," said Therese Marino, who had come to survey the scene at the school all four of her children went to when they were young. Silke Drehe, who had fetched her daughter from the school after the shooting, said: "It's just awful. I would never have thought that something like this could happen here."
The shooting is bound to revive arguments about gun ownership in Germany, where legislation laws were tightened after a massacre in Erfurt that killed 16.
This morning, shortly after the first shootings, the Kretschmer family home in nearby Leutenbach was raided by police. The boy's father, a successful local businessman, is also a member of the local shooting club. According to the police, there were 16 weapons, one of which was missing.