Germany holds school-shooting memorial

WINNENDEN, Germany, March 22 (UPI) -- German President Horst Koehler told mourners the entire nation was grieving with the families of the 15 people killed in last week's school shooting rampage.

Koehler and Chancellor Angela Merkel joined a crowd of several thousand in the town of Winnenden Saturday for a memorial service that was televised nationwide.

The British Broadcasting Corp. said Koehler was emotional as he addressed the crowd.

"Such acts lead us to the limit of comprehension," he said. "But so long as we can stick with and help each other, we are not helpless ... The whole of Germany is grieving with you."

The victims died March 11 when 17-year-old Tim Kretschmer gunned down nine students and three teachers at a secondary school in Winnenden and then killed two more people in nearby Wendlingen before taking his own life.

The BBC said some of the victims' families used the ceremony to call for tighter gun-control laws and a ban on violent video games like the ones Kretschmer reportedly had been playing on the eve of his shooting spree.