A multitude of discrete 2 + states in 124 Sn with energy up to 5 MeV were populated and identified with the (17 O, 17 O' γ) reaction at 340 MeV. Cross sections were compared with distorted wave Born approximation predictions and in general a good agreement was found. The measured energy and intensity distributions of the 2 + states are very similar to the predictions based on self-consistent density functional theory and extended QRPA approach accounting for multiphonon degrees of freedom. This provides evidence of the excitation of the pygmy quadrupole resonance in skin nuclei.