GERMANY: A 16-year-old German student shot his teacher in the leg before killing himself in a Bavarian school yesterday, writes Derek Scally in Berlin.
The student, identified only as Florian K., stood up in German class in the secondary school in the town of Coburg, 230km north of Munich, shortly after 9 a.m. He pulled a gun from his pocket and fired two shots at the teacher, who was at the blackboard with her back to the class. Both shots missed the 41-year-old teacher, who hurried the other students from the classroom and closed the door.
One student was injured when he jumped from a window to escape while another student was kept behind in the classroom by the gunman.
A second teacher entered the classroom to try and disarm the student but was shot in the upper leg and fled.
The 16-year-old then turned a second gun on himself. He reportedly shot himself in the mouth and died instantly.
Police said the dead student brought two weapons into the classroom and showed them to classmates. His father was believed to be a member of a shooting club.
"We know nothing yet about the motives. The teacher is getting medical attention," said Ms Ingrid Beyer, a local police spokeswoman.
Two students were being treated for shock yesterday, and others were receiving psychological counselling. Students said their dead classmate was shy and not prone to violent outbursts.
There were 34 pupils enrolled in the gunman's class, and 757 at the comprehensive school.
The incident comes almost exactly a year after a 19-year-old expelled student shot and killed 16 people before killing himself at a school in the eastern German city of Erfurt.
Two days ago, a 38-year-old man in Berlin shot dead a woman believed to be his ex-girlfriend. He shot and seriously wounded a cyclist and a policeman and then killed himself.
Germany tightened its strict gun control laws following the Erfurt shooting, but there are still close to eight million legally held weapons in the country, roughly one for every 10 people.