ERFURT, Germany, April 26 (UPI) -- An expelled high school student went on a rampage Friday in eastern Germany, killing 18 people, including himself.
Fourteen of those killed were teachers - nine males and five females - at the Gutenberg school. Two female students and a policeman were also killed, Manfred Grube, police chief in Erfurt town, said.
Police said 700 students were taking end-of-year examinations at the time of the attack.
Grube described a "horrific scene" as police arrived at the school. Bodies were found at the school's entrance, hallways and bathrooms. Police said 180 students, aged between 10 and 19, were evacuated safely.
Police and witnesses at the school said the 19-year-old gunman stormed into the school building with his pump-action handgun at about 11 a.m. and randomly opened fire. Six people were seriously wounded.
A spokesman for Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder said the government viewed the massacre with "stunned horror."
The attack was the first since February when a man shot two co-workers and the head of his business school near Munich and then killed himself.
Friday's attack was the worst in Europe since the March 1996 rampage in Scotland when 16 children and their teacher were shot dead by a mentally ill man.
