Scrawled 'Help' note found after massacre

A sign with the word "Help" scrawled on it was pasted to a window as the student in the Erfurt massacre went on the rampage with two guns.

Witnesses say the 19-year-old gunman marched through the halls of his former school, opening fire on students and teachers.

In a rampage lasting around 10 minutes he killed two girls, 13 teachers, a school secretary and a policeman who responded to the caretaker's alert.

Witnesses say the attacker wore black clothes and gloves as he roamed the school's first floor with a pistol and a pump-action shotgun.

Police who have begun removing the bodies, found the dead scattered around the school - some lying in hallways, some in the school toilets.

"The police officers were confronted with a horrible scene," said a spokesman. They won't reveal the identities of the dead.

Authorities are investigating the possibility of a second gunman because some witnesses reported hearing shots in a different direction from the main shooting, but police stress it could just have been echoes.

The gunman is believed to have been expelled from school, depriving him of his chance to take final exams. A woman who said she went to school with the attacker said he had once told her: "One day, I want everyone to know my name and I want to be famous."

She added that he had often had run-ins with his teachers, though she described him as intelligent and well-liked by schoolmates. She said she believed he had "bad relations with his parents."

As well as the dead, one woman suffered a gunshot wound to the leg and three people were treated for shock. Police found about 500 rounds of ammunition near the killer's body.