Heribert Rech, interior minister in the southern German state where Wednesday's bloobath took place, admitted late Thursday that he had been taken in, and police said they were investigating two people.

'Some crazy person obviously put out this dreadful false message,' Mr Rech was quoted as saying by the Sueedeutsche Zeitung daily.

The minister had read out from the chat room message on Thursday in which he claimed 17-year-old Tim Kretschmer had said he was going to his old school to 'whip up a storm', naming the town - Winnenden - where it would take place.

But after analysing Kretschmer's computer, on which he had spent hours playing 'shoot-em-up' video games, police said no trace had been found of the message, a spokesman for local police said.

The website in question, Krautchand.net, said that the press had been 'unfortunately fooled - and probably not for the first time either - by a forgery.'

'No killing spree was announced here, there are only people who know how to use Photoshop,' it said. 'Maybe he visited the site, but he definitely didn't write the post that went through the news, because that one never existed.'

On Wednesday morning at 9.30 am (4.30 pm Singapore time) Kretschmer, dressed in black combat gear, went to the school armed with a handgun taken from his father's bedroom and more than 200 rounds of ammunition.

At the school he shot dead eight girls, one boy and three female teachers. He then killed a passer-by outside a psychiatric clinic where he had been due to receive treatment, hijacked a car and shot two others at a car dealership.

By this time hundreds of armed commandos were on his trail, assisted by helicopters and guns, and Kretschmer died in a shootout with police around 30 km from the school. Police believed he shot himself. -- AFP.