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CNN Live Today

School Shooting Leaves 17 Dead in Germany

Aired April 26, 2002 - 14:01   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: We're going to go to Germany once again. Officials there are left with the task of sorting out today's school shooting. Eighteen dead there, including the shooter. CNN producer Alex Quade once again near the scene by telephone. Alex, good evening again to you.

ALEX QUADE, CNN PRODUCER: Hi, Bill. Germany is trying to come to grips with what happened here today. Eighteen people dead and four injured after a masked, armed gunman dressed in black went on a shooting rampage here in Erfurt, in eastern Germany.

So this is the bloodiest school massacre in the country's history. And it's being compared to America's Columbine high school shooting. Among the dead, 14 teachers, two students, one police officer and the gunman. Police say the gunman shot the officer after he stormed into the classroom where he was barricaded, and then turned the gun on himself.

When police and medics went into the school, they found a horrific scene. They described bodies strewn in hallways and in bathrooms. They found a handwritten note on window saying "help" in German. Investigators searched the school for a possible second gunman, but police say they can't confirm student reports of a second gunman.

Police say that the shooter was a 19-year-old ex-student recently expelled from the school, and say that he was carrying a handgun and a shotgun. Meanwhile, in the next hour there is a church service, a mourning memorial service, planned at the local church here in Erfurt. There is also a counseling center that's been set up where victims' families can gather for help. Bill, back to you.

HEMMER: Alex, quickly here. Are you hear anything from any reporting in any area that may have tipped off students or teachers inside that school, that this was this young man's intention?

QUADE: That is the big question, Bill. Police are trying to investigate how he obtained the weapons. Germany's gun laws are so strict that they are trying to figure out how he obtained these weapons. They figure that because of how strict the gun laws are, there must have been a lot of preplanning, and that someone else must have known about it.

They are looking into the Internet and they are hoping to talk with other students. They figure that with an event such as this, there must have been preplanning and somebody else must have known. That's something that they are investigating over the course of the next few days -- Bill.

HEMMER: One of the countless questions indeed. Alex, thank you. CNN producer Alex Quade near the scene there in Erfurt, Germany. Eighteen dead, again. Fourteen teachers, two young girls, a police officer and the shooter himself, 19 years young, dead there in Germany.

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