Austrian The authorities said on Sunday that the stab wounds of six people who left a 14 -year -old boy had been made by a man with possible ties with the Islamic State group who seemed to have acted alone.
The 23-year-old Syrian suspect was arrested after the attack, which took place on Saturday afternoon in the center of the southern city of Villach, near the main square. Police said he used a folding knife. The wounded were two 15 -year -old boys and men aged 28, 32 and 36. Two were seriously injured and two others also receive treatment in hospital, while minor injuries were treated.
“This is an Islamist attack with a connection by an attacker who has radicalized in a very short time via the Internet,” said Interior Minister Gerhard Karner on Sunday.
State Governor Peter Kaiser thanked a 42 -year -old man, also a Syrian, working for a food delivery company who headed for the suspect and helped prevent the situation from getting worse. “This shows how much terrorist evil but also human good can be united in one and the same nationality,” he said.
While the emphasis went to migration and asylum seekers, Karner said that it would ultimately be necessary to “perform mass screening without reason, because this assassin was not visible”.
He did not develop his plans. The suspect had not been known for Austria to have been in Austria, although the authorities said that he had a residence permit.
Austrian Policy Front and Center migration
The far right chief of Austria, Herbert Kickl, whose party won a national election four months ago, called for “rigorous repression of asylum” following the attack.
Sunday, Kickl said that like all other parties in Austria had not implemented the necessary asylum restrictions, it is crucial for its party to control the Ministry of the Interior – which is in charge of asylum and migration – in any future government.
Last week, coalition talks in Austria collapsed for the second time when the Kickl freedom party and the conservative people party could not get along who would supervise the Interior Ministry.
Migration was a primary subject leading to the elections, which led Kickl’s party to win its first victory in the national elections since the Second World War. The subject took the front of the stage in many European countries, the far -right parties making breakthroughs during the elections.
On Saturday, neighboring Germany police said that a 2 -year -old girl died two days after being injured in a car attack during a union demonstration in Munich. He marked the fifth attack involving immigrants in Germany in the past nine months, migration becoming a major problem before the next elections on February 23.
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The mayor of Villach, Günther Albel, said that the attack was a “stab in the heart of the city”.
Michaela Kohlweiss, director of state police, said
“The current image is that of a lonely author,” said Kohlweiss. The police presence will be increased in the streets of Villach and during events in the coming weeks, added Kohlweiss.
A second deadly attack in Austria
Villach’s attack marks the second fatal extremist attack in Austria in recent years. In November 2020, a man who had previously tried to join the Islamic State group carried out an outburst in Vienna, armed with an automatic rifle and an explosive vest, killing four people before being shot by police .
Last August, the authorities thwarted an attack on the shows of Taylor Swift in Vienna which was inspired by the Islamic State group.
The Islamic religious community in Austria expressed sympathies to victims and their families in a statement on Sunday and said that it was “fully attached to peaceful and respectful coexistence”. The president of the Islamic religious community, ümit Vural, added that the attack “has nothing in common with the true values of our faith”.
Residents began to place candles on the attack site in the city of around 60,000 inhabitants. A group of young people who knew the deceased boy in attack gathered on the crime scene on Sunday morning to cry and light up in tears, local media reported.
President Alexander Van der Bellen described the attack on “horrible”.
“No word can cancel suffering, horror, fear. My thoughts concern the family of the deceased victim and the injured, ”he posted on X.
The free Syrian community of Austria has published a declaration on Facebook distancing itself from the attack and expressing its biggest condolences to the families of the victims. “We all had to flee Syria, our country of origin, because we were no longer safe there – no one left their country voluntarily. We are grateful to have found asylum and protection in Austria, ”said the association.
Calls to strengthen migration rules
Kickl wrote on X on Saturday that he was “dismayed by the horrible Villach act”.
“At the same time, I am angry – angry with politicians who have allowed stabs, rapes, gang wars and other capital crimes to become the agenda in Austria. It is a first class failure of the system, for which a young man from Villach now had to pay with his life, “said Kickl.
According to the Ministry of the Interior, 24,941 foreigners asked for asylum in Austria in 2024. The largest group of candidates was in Syria, followed by Afghanistan.
Over the past two years, the number of asylum seekers has decreased considerably. In 2022, applications culminated at more than 100,000, while around 59,000 people searched for asylum in 2023.
The conservative party chief Christian Stocker said on X that the attacker “should be brought to justice and be punished with all the strength of the law”.
The head of the social democrats, Andreas Babler, said: “Crimes like this should simply not happen in our society.”
