Germany bloodbaths

Hurriyet Daily News with wires

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A masked teenager in black combat gear went on a bloody rampage at his old school in Germany yesterday, slaying at least 15 people before dying in a shootout with police, officials said. A Turkish-origin student, identified as 15-year-old İbrahim, was among the deaths, according to the private channel NTV. Among others injured were two student of Turkish descent, CNN Türk TVchannel reported.

The 17-year-old, who police called Tim K., entered the secondary school in Winnenden, a town of 27,000 near Stuttgart, at around 9.30 a.m. (10:30 a.m. Turkish time) and began firing. Police said the youth killed nine students, aged between 14 and 15, and three teachers at the school, as well as one person at a nearby clinic, before fleeing with a hostage in a car. He was killed in a shootout with police at a car dealership roughly 30 kilometers from the school. Two passers-by died in the shootout and two policemen were seriously wounded, bringing the total death toll to 16, including the gunman.

"Nobody can understand it," said Roberto Seifert, who works at a business near the school. "Everyone is in shock. The mood's very subdued here," he told Reuters. A spokesman for German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she was "horrified" by the shooting. "The chancellor and the entire government is deeply shocked and horrified about this terrible shooting. Our condolences go out," Agence France-Presse quoted her spokesman as saying.

Details on the gunman were murky, but the Bild daily said that commandos had stormed the home of the teenager's parents, where 16 weapons were legally held. Speaking to reporters, the interior minister of the state said there was nothing in the gunman's background to indicate that he had a grudge against the school.