Today there was another shootout at a German school. A former student killed nine students and three teachers, then fled the school (possibly because the police were entering the scene) in a kidnapped car, finally killing himself during a shooting with the police some 40 km (25 miles) away.

It’s the first shootout at a German school in which people were killed since the one in Erfurt in April of 2002.

Deutsche Welle: Teenage Gunman Takes Own Life After German School Shooting.

“Police in Stuttgart have confirmed the death of a gunman in a school-shooting incident that left at least 15 victims dead and several injured near Stuttgart in the southwest of the country.”

Spiegel: Germany Shocked by Teenager’s Killing Spree.

“Germany was in shock on Wednesday after a 17-year-old youth killed 16 people in a shooting rampage that began at his school, where he shot dead 10 pupils and three teachers. He later took a gun to his own head during a shootout with police. His motive remains a mystery.”

I’m not only concerned because I’m a teacher myself and the school where this happened today is quite similar to my own but also because it happened in a town where a friend of mine works. A lot of his colleagues have children in the school, and the town is small enough that many people know each other. At his company they were told to shut the gates and the window shutters, and for hours many of his colleagues didn’t know how there children were.

Update:

BBC News: German school gunman ‘kills 15’.

“Fifteen people have been killed by a teenage gunman who went on a rampage in south-west Germany, officials say.
Among the dead were nine pupils, eight of them girls, and three teachers at the Albertville secondary school in the town of Winnenden, north of Stuttgart. “

New York Times: Teenage Gunman Kills 15 at School in Germany.

“Winnenden, Germany — A teenage gunman killed 15 people, most of them female, on Wednesday in a rampage that began at a school near Stuttgart in southern Germany and ended in a nearby town, where he then killed himself after the police wounded him.”