TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 7023 SUBJECT: GRB 071031: VLT high-resolution spectroscopy DATE: 07/10/31 03:19:47 GMT FROM: Daniele Malesani at Niels Bohr Inst,Dark Cosmology Center C. Ledoux (ESO), P. Jakobsson (Univ. Herfordshire), A.O. Jaunsen (Univ. Oslo), C.C. Thoene, P.M. Vreeswijk, D. Malesani, J.P.U. Fynbo, J. Hjorth (DARK), report on behalf of a larger collaboration: We observed the optical afterglow of GRB 071031 (Stroh et al., GCN 7020; Kruehler et al., GCN 7021; Haislip et al., GCN 7022) with the ESO VLT. Observations were triggered automatically in rapid response mode starting on 2007 Oct 31 at 01:16 UT (9.3 min after the trigger). We secured high- and low-resolution spectroscopy with UVES and FORS2, respectively. From the detection of a DLA and several metallic lines, including fine-structure transitions, we determine the redshift to be z=2.692, consistently in the UVES and FORS2 spectra. Further analysis is ongoing. We acknowledge excellent support from the observing staff at Paranal, in particular Stan Stefl and Rachel Gilmour.