German school gunman buried privately

FRANKFURT, Germany -- A German teen who killed 16 people in Erfurt before taking his own life in one of the world's worst school shootings was privately buried Saturday at an undisclosed location, police said.

Only close family attended the burial of Robert Steinhaeuser, who went on a shooting spree in the Johann Gutenberg Gymnasium high school on April 26, said a spokesman for Erfurt police, who declined to be named. He gave no further details.

The shooting last month shook Germany and prompted Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder to call for tighter gun laws, including raising the minimum age for acquiring firearms for recreational use from 18 to 25.

Steinhaeuser had permits for both the pump-action rifle that he carried into the school and the pistol he used to carry out the shootings. The 19-year-old had been kicked out of school in October for forging a doctor's note.

A report by security officials in the state where the shooting took place described Steinhaeuser as closed and moody and said he was under pressure from his family to perform well in school, the weekly Focus reported in an advance copy of its Monday edition.