Past European school attacks
March 1996, Britain: A gunman burst into a primary school in Dunblane, Scotland, shot and killed 16 children and their teacher, then killed himself.
Seventeen red roses, one for each of the children and their teacher, were placed near the entrance to Dunblane Primary School, in Dunblane, Scotland. (Stefan Rousseau / Associated Press)
After the massacre at Dunblane school, Queen Elizabeth laid a wreath at the site of the shootings. (Alastair Grant / Associated Press)
Sept. 1, 2004, Russia: Three hundred and thirty three hostages, at least 186 of them children, died at School No. 1 in Beslan, Russia. The school was seized by rebels demanding Chechen independence. The deaths occurred during the chaotic storming of the school by Russian forces.
A man carries an injured boy in the school garden during a rescue operation. (Vladimir Suvorov / AFP)
A month after the September shootings in Russia, women mourn at the destroyed school’s gymnasium. (Maxim Marmur / AFP)
In Beslan, relatives of a victim of the attack cry near a coffin during his funeral. (Vladimir Suvorov / AFP)
Sept. 23, 2008, Finland: Student Matti Saari opened fire in a vocational school in Kauhajoki in northwestern Finland, killing nine other students and one male staff member before killing himself.
People place candles near Kauhajoki vocational high school. (Antti Aimo-Koivisto / Associated Press)
Jan. 23, 2009, Belgium: A man with a white painted face and blackened eyes fatally stabbed two infants and a woman at childcare center in western Belgium.
The parents of Leon Garcia, one of the victims of the stabbing incident at a daycare center, carry his coffin outside the church after the funeral service in Dendermonde, Belgium. (Geert Vanden Wijngaert / Associated Press)
Jan. 23, 2009, Norway: A policeman shot to death a female teacher and then shot himself in what appeared to be a quarrel between former lovers outside a school in the northern town of Tromsoe. The policeman died of his wounds days later.
Emergency workers stand in a car park outside the school in Tromsoe following the shootings. (Dagbladet Nett / Associated Press)
March 11, 2009, Germany: A 17-year-old gunman dressed in black combat gear killed more than a dozen people, including nine students and three teachers at the Albertville Realschule school in Winnenden. He fled and later killed himself after a gunbattle with police.
Police remove the body of a victim the Albertville Realschule secondary school in Winnenden, Germany. (Sascha Schuermann / AFP / Getty Images)
