Winnenden  - Pupils at a high school in the German town of Winnenden resumed lessons under a single roof on Monday, almost ten weeks after a former pupil opened fire at the school and surroundings, killing 15 people and himself.

However, the 600 pupils of the Albertville high school have not yet returned to the site of the shootings in March.

Instead, they are all being taught in a provisional structure consisting of 165 containers set up behind the school, while the building in which 12 people were killed is renovated and expanded.

"We all want to return to the Albertville high school," Winnenden mayor Bernhard Fritz said on Monday.

A former pupil at the school, 17-year-old Tim Kretschmer, shot nine pupils and three teachers when he went on a rampage at his former school on March 11. He killed three more people as he fled, before shooting himself.

It is not yet clear how soon the school building can be reopened. The redevelopment project is due to go to tender next year.

"He took a lot from us, but not our school as well. We won't allow this school to be taken from us," the Head of the parents' committee Annette Erik-Helber said.(dpa)