Schoolboy gunmen kill 18 in Germany
Two gunmen, believed to be schoolboys, opened fire wildly inside a German school today, killing 18 people, including two teachers and a policeman.
At least one barricaded himself in a classroom, holding 28 children hostage, said police. Two of the children were said to have been injured.
An eyewitness told German television he saw a placard hanging out of one of the school’s windows reading HELP. A girl was seen at the window.
‘‘It was chilling. I saw this big placard with the word Help on it and people moving around behind it but I couldn’t tell if they were children or attackers,’’ he said.
One of the young gunmen was later reported to have been killed but police, who sent commandos into the Gutenberg Gymnasium school, did not say how he died.
Six people were injured in the shooting, said Simone Schnell, a spokeswoman for police in Erfurt, 124 miles from Berlin.
The attackers were armed with at least one pistol and one rifle, police said.
One of the attackers was apparently a student who refused to take a maths exam.
A fellow pupil said the young gunman had been sitting at his desk at the start of the exam, opened up the test paper and said: ‘‘I’m not going to take this test.’’
He then pulled out a pistol and started shooting, the pupil told reporters.
Police said one of the gunmen had been recently expelled from the school.
Shocked and upset students who fled the shooting reported seeing a man dressed all in black roaming the hallways with a gun.
‘‘I heard shooting and thought it was a joke,’’ said 13-year-old Melanie Steinbrueck, chocking back tears. ‘‘But then I saw a teacher dead in the hallway in front of Room 209 and a gunman in black carrying a weapon.’’
‘‘The guy was dressed all in black - gloves, cap, everything was black,’’ said Juliane Blank, 13. ‘‘He must have opened the door without being heard and forced his way into the classroom.’’
‘‘We ran out into the hallways. We just wanted to get out,’’ she said.
A team of special police commandos was sent to surround the brown stone building, located in a residential area of Erfurt the capital of the state of Thuringia.
More than two hours later, the special commandoes were seen storming the building.
Police received a call at 11:05am (10.05 Irish time) from the principal of the school, who said someone was shooting in the building. An initial team of officers arrived on the scene shortly after and entered the school. One of the policemen was among those killed.
Outside, a police officer with a megaphone urged parents to register their childrens’ names before leaving the scene, and groups of dazed and shocked students huddled in the street, hugging and crying.
Student Martin Streng said he was in maths class when he heard gunfire coming from a classroom down the hall. As he and other students filed into the hallway to flee the building, they saw a man with a gun down the corridor behind them, Streng said.
It was Germany’s second school shooting in two months.
:: In February, a 22-year-old man killed his former headmaster at a school in Freising, near Munich.
The attacker, who had already shot dead two former bosses in a nearby town, blew himself up with two home-made pipe bomb after a standoff with police.
None of the 400 students in the school were hurt.
