A 23-year-old Syrian has been arrested after a 14-year-old boy was killed and five others injured in a stabbing in Austria, which the country’s interior minister said was motivated by Islamist extremism.
The suspect, who police said is a Syrian national with legal residence in Austria after arriving as an asylum seeker, 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.
On Sunday, Austrian interior minister Gerhard Karner said the perpetrator was a suspected Islamist who had been radicalized online in a short amount of time. The stabbing was linked to Islamic State and motivated by “Islamic terrorism”.
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 are 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 a man “randomly attacked passers-by with a knife”.
The incident happened on Saturday 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.
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 the X social media platform that he is “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”.
