Austrian authorities mentioned Sunday that the suspect who they imagine fatally stabbed a 14-year-old boy and wounded 5 others within the village of Villach is a Syrian refugee who pledged allegiance to the Islamic State.
At a press convention, Austrian Inside Minister Gerhard Karner mentioned the 23-year-old Syrian nationwide was arrested seven minutes after Saturday’s assault unfolded within the village of nearly 60,000 folks bordering Italy and Slovenia.
“That is an Islamist assault with an IS connection by an attacker who radicalized himself inside a really quick time through the web on-line,” Karner advised reporters, in keeping with the Related Press.
Concerning mass migration and asylum-seekers, Karner, a conservative, mentioned it should finally be essential to “perform a mass screening with out trigger as a result of this murderer was not conspicuous.”
Carinthia’s police chief, Michaela Kohlweiss, Austria’s Inside Minister Gerhard Karner, Carinthia’s Gov. Peter Kaiser and the mayor of Villach, Guenther Albel, tackle a press convention on Feb. 16, 2025, on the knife assault web site. (Gerd Eggenberger/APA/AFP through Getty Pictures)
“There’s compassion, there’s disappointment, however in these moments there’s additionally understandably typically anger and rage,” Karner added, in keeping with Reuters. “Anger at an Islamist attacker who randomly stabbed harmless folks right here on this city.”
The assault got here a day after Vice President JD Vance rebuked European leaders on the Munich Safety Convention over mass migration, in addition to crackdowns on free speech.
As authorities revealed the alleged “Islamic terror motive,” Austria’s far-right chief Herbert Kickl, whose get together gained a nationwide election 4 months in the past, referred to as for “a rigorous crackdown on asylum” within the wake of the assault.
Kickl wrote on X Saturday that he’s “appalled by the horrific act in Villach.”
“On the similar time, I’m offended – offended at these politicians who’ve allowed stabbings, rapes, gang wars and different capital crimes to change into the order of the day in Austria. This can be a first-class failure of the system, for which a younger man in Villach has now needed to pay along with his life,” Kickl mentioned.
“From Austria to the EU – the fallacious guidelines are in pressure in all places. No one is allowed to problem them, the whole lot is asserted sacrosanct,” he mentioned, including that his get together had outlined what he seen as vital modifications to immigration legal guidelines in its election platform.
The suspect is charged with homicide and tried homicide. Austrian police mentioned the suspect recorded himself pledging allegiance to IS, in keeping with Reuters.
State police director Michaela Kohlweiß mentioned authorities searched the suspect’s condo with sniffer canines and located IS flags on the partitions.
No weapons or harmful objects have been discovered, she added, however police seized cell telephones. Police have been investigating whether or not the suspect had any accomplices.
“The present image is that of a lone perpetrator,” Kohlweiß mentioned, in keeping with the AP.
Carinthia State Gov. Peter Kaiser thanked one other Syrian nationwide, a 42-year-old man working for a meals supply firm, who drove towards the suspect and helped forestall the scenario from getting worse.
SUSPECT IN MUNICH CAR ATTACK HAD ‘ISLAMIST MOTIVATION,’ PROSECUTOR SAYS
“This reveals how carefully terrorist evil but in addition human good might be united in a single and the identical nationality,” Kaiser mentioned.
The mayor of Villach, Guenther Albel, mentioned the assault was a “stab within the coronary heart of the town.”
Austrian conservative get together chief Christian Stocker mentioned on X that the attacker “should be delivered to justice and be punished with the complete pressure of the regulation.”
“All of us wish to dwell in a protected Austria, including that this implies political measures have to be taken to keep away from such acts of horror sooner or later,” he mentioned.
The day earlier than Vance visited the Munich Safety Convention, an Afghan refugee on Thursday plowed a automotive right into a crowd within the German metropolis, injuring dozens of individuals, together with a mom and her 2-year-old daughter, who later died.
Vice President JD Vance addresses the Munich Safety Convention in Germany, Friday, Feb. 14, 2025. (AP Photograph/Matthias Schrader)
“The variety of immigrants who entered the EU from non-EU nations doubled between 2021 and 2022 alone, and naturally, it is gotten a lot increased since,” Vance mentioned Friday. “It is the results of a collection of aware choices made by politicians everywhere in the continent. Others internationally over the span of a decade. We noticed the horrors wrought by these choices yesterday on this very metropolis. And naturally, I can not carry it up once more with out enthusiastic about the horrible victims who had a wonderful winter day in Munich ruined. Our ideas and prayers are with them and can stay with them. However why did this occur within the first place?”
“It is a horrible story, but it surely’s one we have heard means too many instances in Europe, and sadly too many instances in the US as effectively,” Vance mentioned. “An asylum seeker, typically a younger man in his mid-20s, already recognized to police, rams a automotive right into a crowd and shatters a group. What number of instances should we undergo these appalling setbacks earlier than we modify course and take our shared civilization in a brand new course?”
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The stabbing in Villach on Saturday marked what’s believed to be the second lethal Islamic terror assault in Austria lately. In November 2020, a person who had beforehand tried to affix the Islamic State carried out a rampage in Vienna, armed with an automated rifle and a pretend explosive vest, killing 4 folks earlier than being fatally shot by police. Final August, Austrian authorities mentioned they thwarted a deliberate assault at a Taylor Swift live performance in Vienna by a youngster who had additionally allegedly pledged allegiance to IS.
The Related Press contributed to this report.
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