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Teenage gunman in black kills 16 at German school

(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-03-11 20:13

WINNENDEN, Germany -- A 17-year-old gunman dressed in black opened fire at his former high school in southwestern Germany on Wednesday, killing at least 16 people and injuring others before police shot him to death, state officials said.

Police say a girl seriously injured has died of her wounds in the hospital, bringing the death toll to 17, including the gunman.

The death toll brings the killing on par with Germany's worst school shooting ever, when a 19-year-old killed 16 people and himself in Erfurt in 2002.

Police say 17-year-old Tim K., a former student who graduated from the Albertville high school last year, opened fire in two classrooms early Wednesday morning before fleeing.

Police said the former student entered the school in Winnenden, about 12 miles (20 kilometers) northeast of Stuttgart, at 9:30 am and opened fire, shooting at random. Nine students and three teachers are among the killed, officials said.

German Special Police Forces leave the Albertville school in Winnenden near Stuttgart, Germany, Wednesday, March 11, 2009. [Agencies]

Witnesses said students jumped from the windows of the building after the gunman opened fire.

"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."

Triggering a land and air manhunt, he hijacked a car, freed the passengers and drove about 25 miles (40 kilometers) before police found him. When confronted, he killed two bystanders in a shootout with police before he was slain, Baden Wuerttemburg governor Guenther Oettinger said. Two officers were seriously injured, but there was no immediate information on other casualties.

Four hours after the shootings began, police announced the teenager's death.

Concerned parents quickly swarmed around the school, which was evacuated during the incident. About 1,000 children attend the school.

The German government was "deeply shocked and incensed about the appalling killing spree," Ulrich Wilhelm, a spokesman for Chancellor Angela Merkel, said in Berlin.

In 2002, 19-year-old Robert Steinhaeuser shot and killed 12 teachers, a secretary, two students and a police officer before turning his gun on himself in the Gutenberg high school in Erfurt.

Steinhaeuser, who had been expelled for forging a doctor's note, was a gun club member licensed to own weapons. The attack led Germany to raise the age for owning recreational firearms from 18 to 21.