Austria seeks solutions to a criminal offense with out explanations: “This is an American story, not here” | International | EUROtoday

The blinds are down. There is a folded umbrella out and, on the door, some footwear that somebody left with out time to retailer them. On the dry grass, a small statue of Buddha. It’s midday, and the solar hits robust within the backyard. A cat will get quick inside a gap while you see some strangers strategy.

This is – or at the least it appears to him – the cat with which Arthur A. poses in certainly one of his photographs that the Austrian press launched on Wednesday. Arthur A. is the 21 -year -old Austrian who broke into the varsity the place he had studied, and with a legally acquired shotgun killed ten individuals. Then he dedicated suicide.

This is the rear backyard on the bottom flooring the place he lived along with his mom. Police Special Forces found a farewell letter and a do-it-yourself bomb, happily unusable, in addition to a plan to prepare an explosive assault. This is Kalsdorf, a city of 8,500 inhabitants on the outskirts of Graz, the town to southern Austria the place, as on this neighborhood, nothing by no means occurs, and that, like the entire nation, seeks solutions and finds no explanations.

“This is an American story, not Austrian,” says Natalia Chalakova, who is nineteen years previous and on Wednesday she handed by the backyard and the ground the place the aggressor lived together with her mom with out realizing what had been created there. He had simply found, due to journalists, what occurred the day earlier than on this similar place. “Really?” He reacts when he’s advised that the writer of the worst slaughter lived right here in a college that’s remembered on this nation. “Normally,” he says, “this is quiet. If there is any problem, they are children fighting in the patio.”

This working class neighborhood in Kalsdorf, with two-story uniform housing, is a mini-anustry, with residents of Bosnian origin or, equivalent to Chalakova, Bulgaro, and others of native origin. The feeling of consolation and prosperity, on this nation, extends far past the properly -off lessons: it may very well be mentioned that it’s the closest factor to an excellent of European social democracy, though right here – additionally the acute proper achieved greater than a 3rd of the votes within the elections of the previous autumn.

In the assault on the Federal Institute Dreierschützengasse de Graz died shot a trainer who was about to retire and 9 college students between 14 and 17 years. There had been seven ladies and three boys. The 11 injured are out of hazard. “Getting, please,” a young person begged in crying, heading to the swarm of journalists, whereas arriving in school to select up earlier than the small altar of flowers and candles.

Another younger girl, Laura, a 19 -year -old pupil at one other institute, who a pal of her, a pupil on the Dreierschützengasse, was saved as a result of that day she had stayed at residence to check for the so -called maturity exams, equal to the selectivity. “Thank God,” he sighs. He explains that one other pal, in full evacuation, noticed the our bodies of two former classmates. And repeat the refrain that’s heard many times: “These things are seen in the movies and in America. Not here …”.

Paul Nitsche, 51 -year -old Protestant shepherd and a professor of faith on the Institute, could have a job when he returns to class and has to speak to college students of the whole lot that occurred, of the loss and duel, of life and dying, of the inexplicable. “Before the question of why, there are no good answers,” he says throughout a dialog interrupted by the minute of silence that on Wednesday, at 10 within the morning, Graz and all Austria paralyzed. “It is simply a nonsense,” he provides. “Whoever says this has some kind of meaning, was not in there.”

The questions rumble within the head of Pastor Nitsche, who labored solely in an empty classroom on Tuesday at 10 within the morning, as a result of there was no class that day, and heard noise. At first, he thought they had been firecrackers. Nor did it undergo the top that had been photographs: “These things do not happen here.” Then, he realized that it may very well be one thing severe. He ran down, down stairs. “And I saw the aggressor, five meters from me, while trying to open a lock with the weapon. I kept running. I thought: ‘This cannot be true.” These issues don’t occur right here …

In a press release, the police of the land From Stretia, whose capital is Graz, mentioned that, along with the farewell letter, in the home of Arthur A. they discovered a farewell video. According to the newspaper The crownthat quotes analysis sources, Arthur A. despatched this video on Tuesday, earlier than perpetrating the crime, to his mom (his father, of Armenian origin, didn’t dwell with them). He apologized for what he was going to do and thanked him for taking good care of him. The mom took 24 minutes to open the video. Too late. In one of many photographs revealed within the Austrian press, the younger man seems along with his cat, presumably the identical as Wednesday, after feeling that journalists approached, obtained into the home from the backyard in Kalsdorf.

A couple of meters from there, Esmeralda Cehajic, 32 years previous and Bosnian origin, mentioned that his father used to see Arthur A. whereas strolling to his canine, a black labrador. “There was nothing unusual in him,” he says. Another neighbor, who lives in entrance, says that he was at all times wearing darkish and wore a cap. The neighbor is known as Thomas Gasser, he’s 38 years previous, he’s a supervisor in a grocery store, and speaks from his backyard, similar to that of the aggressor’s household.

“I always greeted him, he never,” he remembers. The mom, alternatively, “was always kind.” Now Gasser thinks of his celebration, final Saturday, on this backyard, with 14 buddies, relaxed and completely happy, blind to the hidden hazard a couple of meters from there. “It’s disturbing, very disturbing.”