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A few days after the fatal attack, around 200 people mourned in front of the school in Offenburg in November

Photo: Philipp von Ditfurth / dpa

After the fatal shooting at a school in Offenburg in November, the public prosecutor's office filed murder charges against the 15-year-old alleged perpetrator. The suspect is said to have shot a classmate of the same age, the prosecution in Offenburg said.

The public prosecutor's office accuses the teenager of, among other things, murder and attempted murder. According to the investigation, the 15-year-old is said to have shot his classmate with a pistol at his school in Offenburg on November 9th last year. The victim died a short time later in the hospital. The weapon used in the crime came from the suspect's parents' household. The teenager is also said to have tried to set off an incendiary device in the classroom and then in the school stairwell, but was unsuccessful. The teenager has been in custody since the crime in November.

The public prosecutor sees the murder characteristic of insidiousness. The killed student could not have foreseen the attack, the authorities said. According to the public prosecutor's office, the Offenburg regional court must now decide whether to open main proceedings against the teat suspect. If the main hearing were to be scheduled, the case would be heard in a youth chamber and in camera, according to the prosecution. If convicted, the 15-year-old could face a youth sentence of between six months and ten years, according to the public prosecutor's office.

Repeated acts of violence at schools

In the past few weeks there have been repeated acts of violence at schools in Baden-Württemberg. At the end of January there was a fatal knife attack on a student in St. Leon-Rot in the Rhein-Neckar district. An 18-year-old student at the same high school is suspected of having killed the victim of the same age with a knife. Hours later he was arrested in Lower Saxony.

On Tuesday, two young men are said to have seriously injured two 17-year-olds with knife wounds in a Pforzheim school. The two students were taken to the hospital after the incident on Tuesday afternoon, police and prosecutors said. The suspects, aged 18 and 19, were arrested after a brief escape.

aeh/AFP/dpa