HEIDELBERG, Germany — Three people were injured and another was killed after an 18-year-old student opened fire in a lecture hall at a German university on Monday.
Heidelberg University President Bernhard Eitel said the shooting took place during an organic chemistry class that the gunman was enrolled in, reports France 24. Police said thirty people were in class when the gunman, who was armed with two rifles, “wildly” fired multiple shots in the amphitheater. He then fled the auditorium and turned the gun on himself.
All four victims were females and suffered wounds to the legs, back and face. One of the victims, a 23-year-old, died at the hospital a few hours later.
Police received the first emergency calls from inside the lecture hall around 12:24 p.m. Officers arrived within 10 minutes and discovered the gunman’s body outside the building. Mannheim Police Chief Siegfried Kollmar said investigators found more than 100 rounds of ammunition in the gunman’s backpack.
Kollmar said the gunman showed early indications that he had previously suffered from psychiatric problems. Officers searched the gunman’s home and discovered that prior to the attack, he sent a message to his father through the WhatsApp application that said “people have to be punished now” and that he “doesn’t want to be buried in a cemetery but at sea.”
Andreas Herrgen, the chief prosecutor for the city of Heidelberg, said the gunman was unknown to authorities prior to the shooting. He did not have a firearms license and appeared to have purchased the weapons abroad, says CNN. Investigators have not released any information about a possible motive.
According to BBC, Germany has some of the strictest gun laws in Europe, and school shootings are rare. Anyone under 25 is required to pass a psychiatric exam before applying for a gun license. The country has experienced a spate of attacks in recent years, mostly by jihadists or far-right militants.
