Teenager Gunman kills 16 in Germany

By our correspondent Lalith Ganhewa in Germany

(March 12, Berlin, Sri Lanka Guardian) Whole of Germany was taken by a thundering shock when news broke out from the small town Winnenden, south-western Germany, that a teenage gunman aged 17 years have shot and killed 16 persons, including nine students and three teachers at his former school during a shoot-out with police on Wednesday (11.3).

The 17 year old shooter Tim Kretschmer basically forced the authorities to seal off the small town of Winnenden, a town of 27,000 near Stuttgart after he fled from the bloodbath.

The former pupil, dressed in black combat gear, entered the vocational School Albertville around 9.30 a.m. and began firing at pupils indiscriminately without uttering a word. Eight pupils and three teachers died immediately and another died later from injuries.

Then he fled into the streets of the small town, which is around 20 kilometres from the southern City of Stuttgart. Tim Kretschmer went to a nearby psychiatric clinic where he shot dead a member of staff. Then he stopped a VW Sharan at Gunpoint and hijacked the car and the driver.

By this time hundreds of special Task Police Commandos with snipers in black body armour were on his trail, assisted by helicopters and special trained dogs.
A few hours later, he leaves the driver and the vehicle on the highway. Then he runs away by foot and walks in to a Car sale in the town of Wending 40 kilometres away from his hometown. There he shoots and kills two more persons.

When the teenager was surrounded in the Care Sale by police, he embarked a shoot-out with armed police units injuring two police officers seriously before the gunman shot himsef.

Erwin Hetger, police chief for the federal state Baden-Wuerttemberg told Sri Lanka Guardian "I've been president of police here for 19 years now, and I can't remember a deed as terrible as this”

The former pupil, dressed in black combat gear, entered the Albertville-School around 9.30 a.m. and began firing at pupils indiscriminately without uttering a word. Eight pupils died immediately and another died later from injuries.

President of Germany Mr. Horst Köhler expressed his shock at the killings. “My wife and I were filled with horror and sadness upon hearing about the rampage in Winnenden. Our thoughts are with the victims and their friends and family,” he said in a press release from Berlin.

Details on the gunman are murky, but German television reported that he may have used a legally-registered gun that was kept in his family's home. A police spokesman said that his parents legally owned up to 18 firearms. Parent’s house was searched by officers and the mother was questioned.

Reports say one of the weapons was missing from their family's collection.

Around 1,000 pupils at several nearby schools were either evacuated or locked in classrooms although some had jumped out of windows to escape the chaos. The Albertville school’s website which said he had graduated last year has crashed.

Education Minister of the federal state Baden-Württemberg, Mr Helmut Rau said “This is the biggest catastrophe that can happen to a school, and the soul of the school is wounded deeply.”

The shooting on Wednesday shook Germany massively and one of the worst in recent years.

In 2002 February, a 22-year-old gunman from the City Freising, near Munich killed the headmaster and seriously injured another person in a vocational training centre he had attended.

In April 2002, Germany suffered its worst school shooting when a gunman killed 17 people, including himself, at a high school in the eastern city of Erfurt (former Eastern Germany).

In 2006, a masked man armed with rifles and explosives attacked a school in the western town of Emsdetten, wounding at least 11 people injuring 37 before turning his gun on himself.

Germany has strict weapons laws, with gun holders having to fulfil certain criteria on age and weapons expertise to obtain a licence for firearms.

The Winnenden’s, origins stretch back to the 12th century. It is the hometown of German firm Archer, a maker of high pressure cleaners. -Sri Lanka Guardian