Gunman planned Austrian school shooting that killed 10, police say
The 21-year-old gunman who went to his former school in Graz on Tuesday and shot 10 people dead and injured a further 11 had carefully planned his rampage in advance.
That's according to a statement by the public prosecutor's office and the police at a press conference on Thursday.
During a search of his house, investigators found a non-functional pipe bomb, notes and plans. According to police, the pipe bomb contained all the components.
His notes express regret that he did not have time to properly finalise his plans.
A farewell letter was also among the items found, but according to investigators, it does not provide any further information about the perpetrator's motive and reads more like an apology to his family.
Investigators also revealed that the young man, who lived with his mother, had lived a secluded life.
He was reportedly introverted, withdrew mainly into the virtual world where his main social contact came from and played first-person shooter games.
Three years ago, he dropped out of school without graduating. The 21-year-old had no criminal record.
Michael Lohnegger, the head of the Styrian state police, explained that the perpetrator entered the school on Tuesday at 9:43 am. He was carrying a rucksack containing a Glock 19 pistol, a sawn-off double-barrelled shotgun and ammunition.
He went to the school toilet on the third floor, put on a gun belt, shooting glasses and a headset. There were 400 pupils in the school at the time.
The gunman, then heavily armed, went to the second floor and shot indiscriminately at people there and at 10:07 am went back to the third floor toilet where he shot himself.
The first police patrol arrived at the school at 10:06 am, by which time the rampage was over and the gunman already dead.
Investigators assume that the 21-year-old did not know the young people he shot, although the teacher who was killed had taught at the school at the time the gunman was a pupil there.
The police investigation is still ongoing, with a laptop and a USB stick still to be analysed.
So far, there are no concrete clues as to the motive for the shooting.
The Union of Savings and Investments is "an idea that seeks to create opportunities for people's savings to be invested with a higher return, especially when we think of long-term savings,' she said.
'We will issue a recommendation to the Member States to create a savings and investment account, through which a set of investment options that are simple, low-cost (...) and with tax incentives will be made available so that people feel more drawn to this type of investment."
The European Commissioner acknowledges that the alternative to fixed-term deposits is investment in financial products with higher risk, in the medium- and long-term.
"We will recommend to the Member States that they create these accounts, in which the products offered are, obviously, suitable to the profile of the retail investor. But yes, investment in the capital market involves risk. There is no capital guarantee."
But, if the money is a low-interest deposit, bank customers are losing money due to inflation.
"They are, in a way that they do not realise, probably. Because, if we put €1,000 in a deposit, at the end of the period we will receive that €1,000 plus interest. The truth is that with that €1,000, we can buy fewer things. When it is said that money is lost in deposits, it is not losing in terms of euros, but what we can purchase with them. It is, therefore, a loss and a waste of the savings effort," emphasised Maria Luís Albuquerque.
Regarding the protectionist positions of some EU governments concerning mergers and acquisitions of foreign banks, as is the case with Portugal, the European Commissioner has a warning.
"There are, in fact, very focused protectionist attitudes regarding a national perspective. I have been saying that we need to change our way of thinking and we must understand that being domestic means being European,' she said.
'The Commission, as you know, never comments on specific cases. But, concerning banking issues, we have in place a banking union that already involves all the countries in the euro area, and in which the rules that must be followed for mergers and acquisitions of banking institutions are defined. It is the European Central Bank, the relevant supervisor, and the competition authorities that must pronounce on any specific operation."
European companies and banks need to be bigger and gain scale to compete with the US and other regions, argues Maria Luís Albuquerque.
"For us to compete with the United States, with China, with the big international blocs, we need the muscle that represents the European Union as a whole and not each of the member states per se.'
'Because none of us is big enough, even the largest, or powerful enough to face that level of competition. Therefore, in that sense, we need companies and banks that are capable of competing with the big global financial institutions to offer more and better services, at more competitive prices," Maria Luís Albuquerque explained.
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