The murder with a teenager’s knife and wounds to five other people In South Austria on Saturday they were an “Islamist attack,” said Interior Minister.
“It is an Islamist attack that has links with ISIS”, Gerhard Karner declared, referring to the Islamic State jihadist group, at a press conference in Villach, the city of southern Austria where aggression took place.
The suspect, a 23 -year -old Syrian asylum applicant, It was radicalized online “in a short time”, The conservative politician added from this town in the Carintia region.
Police indicated that He was arrested just after the aggression Thanks to the reaction of a food delivery man, also from Syria, who rammed him with his vehicle when he saw what was happening.
The suspect, that He had a valid residence permit and lacked criminal recordshe would have shouted “Allah Akbar” (God is the greatest, in Arabic), according to testimonies collected by the researchers.
During the registration of your home, Police found “clear evidence of radical Islamist thought”as ISIS flags hanging on the wall, said Michaela Kohlweiss, Chief of the Carintia Police. No weapons or “other dangerous objects” were found.
The attack occurred almost half a year after the extreme right achieved a historic victory in the September legislative.
FPö ultra -right training, however, failed this week to form a government of coalition with conservatives, due to disagreements in immigration and right to asylum.
Inhabitants of Villach They placed candles and flowers this Sunday In front of the store where the 14 -year -old adolescent died.
“I’m afraid for my children. I fear those around me. I fear for the future.
The country “I should open your eyes and see who we let inwho we help, who we leave with all kinds of freedom. If nothing is done, it will be worse, “he added.
The governor of Carintia, the social democrat Peter Kaiser, asked for the “hardest consequences” for this “incredible atrocity.”
Ultra -rightist leader Herbert Kickl It was in turn “horrified” for the attack and described it as “system failure.” “We need to take drastic measures against asylum,” he said.
Minister Karner expressed his desire to organize “mass random controls (…) aimed at specific groups, such as asylum seekers (…) of Syrian or Afghan origin”, without giving more details.
Austria welcomes almost 100,000 Syrian refugees. But after the fall of former President Bashar al Asad in Syria in December, the country suspended asylum requests from the refugees of this country to reexamine their situation. Other European states followed the step.
He also ended family regrouping and sent at least 2,400 letters revoking the statute of refugee. The Interior Ministry said he is preparing “a coherent program of repatriation and expulsion to Syria.”
“I saw a person lying on the ground and a man attacking other passersby, So I didn’t think twice and rammed it“, declared the Syrian delivery man who stopped the attack, Alaaeddin Alhalabi, 42, cited by the Krone tabloid.
Governor Kaiser thanked him for his performance emphasizing that this drama demonstrates how “evil, terrorism and good, humanism, coexist closely within the same nationality” in Austria.
Austria only suffered a jihadist attack so far. It was in 2020, when a supporter of the self -denominated Islamic State opened fire in the center of Vienna, the capital, killing four people.
This Saturday’s drama took place two days after a massive outrage in the city of Munich, in Germany, in which a two -year -old girl and her mother died. Another 37 people were injured.