A stabbing that left a teenager dead and five other people injured in southern Austria was an “Islamist attack”, the interior minister said on Sunday, with a 23-year-old Syrian asylum seeker held.
Advertisement
Saturday’s attack in the city of Villach has shaken the Alpine nation, where far-right-led talks to form a government collapsed this week with security one of the major issues.
Austria had so far only seen one jihadist attack, in 2020, when a convicted Islamic State (IS) sympathiser went on a shooting rampage in downtown Vienna, killing four.
In Villach’s “Islamist attack with IS connections”, the Syrian asylum seeker held was radicalised online “in a short space of time”, according to Interior Minister Gerhard Karner.
During a raid of the suspect’s flat, police said they found “clear evidence of Islamist radical thought”, such as IS flags on the wall.
Advertisement
No weapons or “other dangerous items” were found, police said, adding the suspect was under investigation for “murder and attempted murder” charges.