A man has been arrested after a 14-year-old boy was killed and five others injured in a stabbing spree in Austria, which the country’s interior minister said was motivated by Islamist extremism.
The 23-year-old suspect, who police said is a Syrian asylum seeker with legal residence in Austria, was detained immediately after the attack in the city of Villach on Saturday.
Police spokesperson Rainer Dionisio told The Independent that authorities believe the attack had an Islamist motivation, and there may be a relationship with Islamic State.
Austrian interior minister Gerhard Karner said on Sunday the perpetrator was a suspected Islamist who had been radicalised online. “This was an Islamist attack with ties to Isis,” he told reporters. “According to investigations, the attacker radicalized himself online in a short period.”
Mr Karner said he felt “anger about an Islamist attacker who indiscriminately stabbed innocent people here in this city”.
Three of the victims of the deadly attack were in intensive care on Sunday, Reuters news agency reported. The five injured men are aged between 15 and 36, including four Austrians and one Turkish national.
Police have not publicly confirmed a motive as they continue to investigate the suspect’s personal background.
"We have to wait until we get secure information," Mr Dionisio said on Saturday, adding that a man “randomly attacked passers-by with a knife”.
The incident happened just before 4pm local time in the centre of the city in southern Austria.
A “heroic” 42-year-old man who works for a food delivery company drove towards the suspect to intervene after witnessing the stabbings in his car, Mr Dionisio told Austria's public broadcaster ORF.
Mr Karner said on Sunday that the Syrian driver had played a “crucial role” in helping police arrest the attacker.
A search of the suspect’s house found Isis-related material, including Isis flags, police chief Michaela Kohlweiss said. His phones were seized from the private residence but no weapons were found.
It is also unclear whether the suspect acted alone, and police are searching for other potential suspects.
Peter Kaiser, the governor of the Austrian province of Carinthia, expressed his condolences to the family of the 14-year-old victim.
He said: “This outrageous atrocity must be met with harsh consequences. I have always said with clarity and unambiguously: Those who live in Carinthia, in Austria, have to respect the law and adjust to our rules and values."
Far-right leader Herbert Kickl said on X, formerly Twitter, he was "appalled by the horrific act in Villach" and wished the family of the 14-year-old victim who was killed in the attack "much strength".
He added: "At the same time, I am angry – angry at those politicians who have allowed stabbings, rapes, gang wars and other capital crimes to become the order of the day in Austria. This is a first-class failure of the system, for which a young man in Villach has now had to pay with his life.”
Conservative Party leader Christian Stocker said on X the attacker "must be brought to justice and be punished with the full force of the law".
“We all want to live in a safe Austria,” he said, adding that this means political measures need to be taken to “avoid such acts of horror in the future”.
The leader of the Social Democrats, Andreas Babler, said on X that "the full force of the law" must be used, adding: “Crimes like this one simply should not happen in our society.”
The Free Syrian Community of Austria distanced itself from the attack, saying that Syrians fled their homeland because they were no longer safe, and are “grateful to have found asylum and protection in Austria”.
The statement added: “Anyone who causes strife and disturbs the peace of society does not represent the Syrians who have sought and received protection here.”
Villach is known for its carnival and is in an area that is a tourist hotspot in the summer as it includes one of Austria’s most famous lakes, but otherwise it attracts little attention.
“I have been in the [Carinthian police] press service for 20 years and cannot recall such an act,” Mr Dionisio told ORF.
Erwin Angerer, a lawmaker for the far-right Freedom Party, said his party had been warning about the situation in Austria as a result of the country’s “disastrous asylum policy”.