VIENNA: Two people have been arrested near Vienna after gunmen opened fire in multiple locations in the Austrian capital, killing four people and leaving at least 15 wounded on Monday, Reuters reported. Seven of the injured were in a critical condition.
Earlier in the day, the country’s Interior Minister Karl Nehammer had said that the police had shot dead one attacker, a man wearing an explosives belt that turned out to be fake. The killed gunman has been identified as an Islamic State sympathiser.
Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz called the incident a “repulsive terror attack”. Later, he tweeted that the attack was “not between Christians and Muslims” or “between Austrians and migrants”, but between “many people who believe in peace and the few who want war”.
Six locations were attacked on 8 pm local time on Monday (12.30 am on Tuesday IST), starting outside the main synagogue in the city. Witnesses quoted by the Reuters had described crowds being fired at in bars with automatic rifles, as many people took advantage of a last evening out before the start of a nationwide coronavirus curfew.
Reuters quoted police as saying that the two arrests were made in the nearby town of St Poelten and that heavily armed police had searched two properties. Nehammer said video material had been seized from the home of the known assailant, and the police were investigating his potential connections.
According to AFP, helicopters were flying overhead as the police sealed off the city in the hunt for other attackers, while neighbouring countries stepped up border checks.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed his grief on Twitter. “India stands with Austria during this tragic time,” he said.
