Austrian school shooter planned to detonate pipe bomb, say police

Vigils held in Graz and country enters period of mourning as details of 21-year-old former pupil's bomb plot emerge

A 21-year-old former student who shot dead 10 people including pupils and a teacher at his former school in Austria before killing himself had planned to detonate a homemade explosive at the site, police have said.

As the small Alpine country came to a standstill to remember the dead, security officials said on Wednesday that the gunman, named in local media as Arthur A, had built a pipe bomb, but had then discarded plans to use it" in his attack on Tuesday in Graz. He told his parents in a suicide note that he had acted of his own free will".