BERLIN -- German authorities struggled Tuesday to explain why a 16-year-old boy opened fire in an Alpine spa town, killing four people, including himself and his sister.
Investigators combed through the family's chalet-style home in Bad Reichenhall, a picturesque resort on the Austrian border famous for its thermal baths and centuries-old salt mines. Police stood outside the two-story house on streets still stained with blood from Monday's shooting spree.The parents of the boy, identified only as Martin P., reportedly spent the night with relatives and were undergoing counseling for shock. Police said they would wait until the parents were in a better "psychological condition" before questioning them about their son's possible motives.
Media commentators, meanwhile, drew comparisons with the recent string of school shootings in the United States -- outbreaks of deadly violence usually covered in Germany with a "can't-happen-here" tone.
"The American nightmare -- now right here in Germany," the mass-market Bild newspaper blared.
German gun control laws are strict, and incidents of gun-related violence relatively rare, even in big cities.
Police said Martin P. had broken into one of two gun cabinets where his father, a former army sergeant and sport shooting club member, kept his firearms. Several of the weapons -- all legally registered -- were used during the 45-minute shooting spree, a police spokesman said.
From a window in his home, the youth opened fire at midday at people outside a hospital across the street, killing a married couple, ages 60 and 59, and injuring eight other people.
After six hours with no shots fired, commandos stormed the house and found the boy and his 18-year-old sister dead. Her body was found near the front door, his in the bathroom, lying in an empty bathtub with a bullet wound to the head.
Some friends of the teenager described him to German media as a "weapons nut" who brought gun catalogs and magazines to school and said he had expressed admiration for the two teens responsible for the deadly shooting spree at a Colorado high school.
Those two gunmen had openly admired Adolf Hitler, and the April 20 massacre that left 15 dead was on the anniversary of Hitler's birth.
But other classmates reportedly described Martin P. as a "very shy" youth who had nothing to do with neo-Nazis.
The parents, identified in German media as Rudolf and Theresia P., reportedly were making a traditional visit to family graves Monday -- All Saints' Day -- when the shooting spree began.