Örebro (Sweden) (AFP) - Sweden on Wednesday mourned the victims of its worst mass killing as police indicated that the gunman probably shot himself after killing 10 people at an adult education centre.

Mourners left candles, flowers and notes in front of the cordoned-off Campus Risbergska, a school for young adults in Orebro, as residents joined members of the royal family to pay their respects.

Police have yet to give details about the gunman or his motives but they confirmed that 11 people, “including the killer”, died in Tuesday’s shooting in the town west of Stockholm.

Swedish media reports suggested the killer was a 35-year-old local man who had been living as a recluse and suffering from psychological problems.

“We are very shocked,” King Carl XVI Gustaf told reporters after he and Queen Silvia laid flowers near the school. “All of Sweden is mourning today.”

Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, who also visited the site on Wednesday, described the massacre as “the worst mass shooting in Swedish history”.

The royal couple, Kristersson and several government ministers joined hundreds at a service at Orebro’s Nikolai Church.

The church observed a minute of silence before dignitaries and representatives from Muslim, Buddhists and other faith groups lit candles.

Survivors were still trying to make sense of Tuesday’s events.

“We looked at each other and we did not really understand what was happening,” said 19-year-old student Isabella Hatidou, who lit a candle at the memorial on Wednesday.

“There was a lot of crying and panicking but we did our best to stay quiet.”

- No ‘ideological’ motive -

Asked about reports that the gunman turned his gun on himself, Orebro police chief Roberto Eid Forest told reporters: “There is a lot to indicate that.”

The suspect was dead when police reached him, he said, adding that there was not yet any indication of an “ideological motive”.

Orebro police said they had identified the suspect but were not yet publishing his name because of the investigation.

The man had been enrolled at the school in the past but had not attended classes there since 2021, according to the Aftonbladet newspaper.

At the time of the attack around midday local time (1100 GMT) Tuesday, he was carrying three rifles and a knife, the paper said. One was a hunting rifle and there were reports of another being a shotgun.

He reportedly hid his weapons in a guitar case and changed into military style garb in a bathroom, before the shooting began.

Broadcaster TV4 published a video filmed by a student hiding in a bathroom, shots can be heard outside and after TV4 isolated audio, a person can be heard shouting: “You will leave Europe!”

The broadcaster noted that the education centre also housed Swedish classes for immigrants.

Police said not all the victims had been fully identified and have not disclosed any information about them.

Health authorities said six people were being treated at Orebro’s university hospital.

Three women and two men had undergone surgery for gunshot wounds and were in a “stable but serious” condition.

A woman was treated for minor injuries, Orebro County authorities said, adding that all the wounded were over the age of 18.

- ‘Panicking, crying’ -

Messages of condolences poured in from around the world, including from Pope Francis, who told Kristersson in a message that he was “deeply saddened” by the shooting.

Students at the school described hearing shots and screaming.

“I saw some bodies lying on the ground. I don’t know if they were dead or injured,” said 16-year-old Linn, who goes to school near the site of the massacre.

“There was blood everywhere, people were panicking and crying … it was chaos.”

School attacks are rare in Sweden but the country has suffered shootings and bombings linked to gang violence that kill dozens of people each year.

In March 2022, an 18-year-old student stabbed two teachers to death at a secondary school in the southern city of Malmo.

Two months earlier, a 16-year-old wounded another student and a teacher with a knife at a school in the small town of Kristianstad.

In October 2015, three people were killed in a racially motivated attack at a school in the western town of Trollhattan by a sword-wielding assailant who was killed by police.