Germany massacre shifts poll focus

Politicians have been among those paying their respects

ERFURT, Germany -- Crime has replaced immigration and the economy at the top of Germany's election agenda following the school shooting in which 17 people died.

After political parties postponed the official launch of their campaigns as a mark of respect for the 13 teachers, two pupils and policeman who died in Friday's gun rampage, the fight resumed on Monday.

Opposition candidate Edmund Stoiber laid flowers outside the Johann Gutenberg Gymnasium School in Erfurt earlier in the day, but his conservative ally Guenther Beckstein launched an attack on the government for not having introduced stricter legislation on violent computer games.

"There is not even a draft law on banning such programmes," the Bavarian interior minister said.

Interior Minister Otto Schily retaliated, calling Beckstein's comments "shameless and indecent."

Police have found violence-laden comics and a number of computer games that featured "intensive weapons usage" at the home of the gunman, Robert Steinhaeuser, the 19-year-old responsible for Germany's worst postwar massacre.

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The former pupil, who had been expelled shortly before the tragedy, shot himself immediately after gunning down his victims.

German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder was stung into trying to respond to some of the demands in curbing violence.

He convened talks with the heads of Germany's main broadcasters to discuss curbing violence on television, while Schily suggested raising the legal age for owning certain weapons to 21 from 18.

Politicians, teachers and clerics are demanding tighter school protection and bans on the violent videos and computer games used by Steinhaeuser, a gun club member whose access to weapons and plentiful ammunition was perfectly legal.

He had licenses for the murder weapon, his Austrian-made Glock pistol which carries up to 18 rounds, and for a pump-action shotgun he had strapped to his back.

But pupils said they did not want to follow the U.S. example of installing airport-style security at their schools.

"We would feel even less secure," said Kadir Meral, an 18-year-old student at Ernst-Abbe-Oberschule high school in Berlin.

"We would always be thinking something was going to happen. It would be like living

in prison."

Minute's silence

Earlier in the day lessons were paused as students across Germany held a minute of silence for the victims of Friday's school.

The minute of silence was held at 11.05 a.m., the moment at which police were alerted to the school in eastern Germany.

Among those observing the silence were some of the 750 pupils from the school who gathered at the town hall for classes but mainly counselling.

The school will be shut for at least week.

Flags will remain at half-staff until an official memorial service on Friday.

CNN Correspondent Diana Muriel said an "eerie and sombre atmosphere" remained in the town of about 200,000 people.

Details of the killer's background were emerging, including a masquerade he carried out to cover up the fact that he had been expelled shortly before the shooting incident.

Steinhaeuser pretended to his parents that he was still going to school each day despite the expulsion.

He even told his unsuspecting parents hours before the massacre that he was going to class to take a math exam.

Officials told The Associated Press his mother wished her son good luck on the exam as he left the house to begin his deadly shooting spree.