Austria of a fatal suspect for a stitch had a ‘Islamic Terror motive’: Officers – National

Austrian The authorities said on Sunday that the stab of six people who left a 14-year-old boy had been performed by a man with possible relationships with a group of Islamic State who seemed to act alone.

The suspect, 23-year-old Syrian, was arrested after the attack, which happened on Saturday afternoon in the center of the southern town of Villach, near the main square. Police said he used a folding knife. Those wounded were two 15-year-olds and men aged 28, 32 and 36. The two were seriously wounded and two others also receive hospital treatment, while one was treated due to minor injuries.

“This is an Islamist attack with the ISO is an attacker who radicalized in a very short time online,” Interior Minister Gerhard Karner told reporters in Villach on Sunday.

The State Government Peter Kaiser thanked the 42-year-old man, also a Syrian, working for a food delivery company that drove to the suspect and helped prevent the situation from getting worse. “It shows that the narrow terrorist evil, but also the human good, can be united in one and the same citizenship,” he said.

As the focus switched to migration and asylum seekers, Karner said that it would ultimately be needed “a mass review for no reason, because this killer was not invasive.”

He did not explain his plans. It was unclear how in Austria the suspect was in Austria, although the authorities said he had a permit to stay.

The Austrian end leader Herbert Kickl, whose party won the national elections four months ago, invited the “Rigorous Azil action” due to the attack.

Kickl said on Sunday that, since all other parties in Austria failed to apply the necessary asylum limitations, it is crucial that his party controls the Ministry of the Interior – which is in charge of asylum and migration – in any future government.

Last week, coalition conversations in Austria collapsed for the second time when Kickl’s party for freedom and the Conservative People’s Party were unable to agree on who would oversee the Ministry of the Interior.

Migration was a prominent topic that led to the election, which resulted in Kickl’s party secured its first victory in the National Election since World War II. The topic occupied the center stage in many European countries, and the extreme right parties came to the polls.

On Saturday, police in neighboring Germany said that a two -year -old girl and her mother died two days after being injured in an attack on cars during a demonstration of union demonstration in Munich. This was marked by the fifth attack that included immigrants in Germany in the last nine months, and migrations became a significant question ahead of the upcoming elections on February 23.

Mayor of Villach, Günther Albel, said the attack was “a sting in the heart of the city.”

Said state police director Michael Kohlweiss

“The current picture is that lone perpetrator,” Kohlweiss said. The police presence will be increased on the streets of Villach and at events in the coming weeks, Kohlweiss added.

The Villach attack marks the second deadly extremist attack in Austria in recent years. In November 2020, a man who had previously tried to join the Islamic State Group performed a rampage in Vienna, armed with an automatic rifle and a false explosive vest, killing four before police shot him fatal.

Last August, the authorities extinguished the attack on Taylor Swift in Vienna, inspired by the Islamic State Group.

The Islamic Religious Community in Austria expressed sympathy for victims and their families in a statement on Sunday and said that it was “fully dedicated to peaceful and respected 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.”

The residents began to put candles in the town of the city of about 60,000 inhabitants. A group of young people who knew the boy who died in the attack gathered at the crime scene on Sunday morning to mourn and tear down bright candles, local media reported.

President Alexander Van der Bellen called the “horrible” attack.

“No words can undo suffering, horror, fear. My thoughts are with the family of the late victim and the injured,” he announced on X.

The Free Syrian Community of Austria issued a Facebook statement, distinguished by the attack and expressed the deepest condolences to the families of the victims. “We all had to escape from Syria, our home country, because we were no longer sure there – no one voluntarily left our country. We are grateful to have found asylum and protection in Austria,” the association said.

Kickl wrote on Saturday that “he was appalled by a terrible act in Villach.”

“At the same time, I’m angry – angry with those politicians who allowed to stab, rape, gang wars and other capital crimes become a order of a day in Austria. This is a first -class failure of the system, for which the young man in Villachu had to pay his life now “Kickl said.

According to the Ministry of the Interior, 24,941 strangers applied for asylum in Austria in 2024. The largest group of applicants was from Syria, followed by Afghanistan.

In the past two years, the number of asylum seekers has decreased significantly. 2022, the applications peaked over 100,000, while about 59,000 individuals sought asylum 2023.

Conservative party leader Christian Stocker told the X that the attacker “must be performed to justice and be punished with the full power of the law.”

The leader of the Social Democrat, Andreas Babler, said: “Crimes like this simply should not happen in our society.”