(Agencies)
Updated: 2007-11-19 20:48

BEIJING - German police said Sunday they had prevented a planned killing spree by two teenagers in a school in the western city of Cologne, Germany.

These weapons were seized from two students who had planned to run amok at a school in Cologne on Tuesday. [Agencies]

The two, aged 17 and 18, aimed to "kill and injure" people at their secondary school on Tuesday and then commit suicide exactly a year after a 2006 school shooting in Emsdettenan, a town north of Cologne.

The motive for the planned attack was not clear and police said initial searches had uncovered only two crossbows and air guns at the youths' homes. The guns were not deadly, they said.

The younger of the two suspects committed suicide on Friday, while the second had been taken into custody, police said.

"(The 18-year-old) who was questioned said they wanted to kill and injure people and then take their own lives," Cologne police spokesman Norbert Wagner told a news conference.

The school alerted police after pupils discovered the 17-year-old had posted images on an Internet website of the 1999 Columbine High School shootings in the United States, when two students killed 13 people in Littleton, Colorado.

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Wagner said officers went to the school on Friday and interviewed the 17-year-old, who they described as an "inconspicuous" pupil who did not appear a threat to others.

The youth told police he would remove the pictures, and threw himself under a tram on his way home. He later died.

Investigators believe the two also planned to use pipe bombs, which they had learnt how to make in advance. No bombs have been found so far.

Police also discovered a list of 17 names of teachers and pupils believed to be intended victims.

In the 2006 attack, an 18-year-old former student shot and wounded six people before killing himself. He had posted a letter on his personal Web page saying he planned to kill himself in a spectacular way. The Web page included photos of himself with weapons and messages expressing hatred of people.

This month, a student in Finland killed eight people in a high school before fatally turning the gun on himself.