Austria was grappling Tuesday with a brutal attack in which a gunman, whom officials described as an Islamic State sympathiser and who was wearing a fake explosive device, opened fire on Monday night in the heart of Vienna, the capital, killing at least four people. By Tuesday morning, around 1,000 police officers had fanned out across the city. Austrian police raided 18 locations and detained 14 people associated with the assailant who are being questioned.
Later in the day, IS claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement from the group’s Amaq News Agency posted on Telegram. The statement was accompanied by a picture of a bearded man, named Abu Dagnah Al-Albany, saying he attacked crowds in Vienna on Monday with a gun and a machine gun, before he was killed himself by Austrian police.
An elderly man and woman, a young passer-by and a waitress were killed in the attack, and 22 people, including a policeman were wounded, interior minister Karl Nehammersaid. Vienna’s mayor said three people were still in critical condition. Describing the assault as a terrorist attack, Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said: “This is not a conflict between Christians and Muslims or between Austrians and migrants. No, this is a fight between the many people who believe in peace and the few (who oppose it). It is a fight between civilisation and barbarism.”
In neighbouring Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel expressed her shock and said: “We Germans stand in sympathy and solidarity with our Austrian friends. The fight against Islamist terrorism is our common struggle.”
The attacker, an Austrian-born son of immigrants from North Macedonia, was wearing an explosive belt that turned out to be fake. Vienna’s police chief said he was killed nine minutes after he started his rampage. He was identified as Kujtim Fejzulai, a dual citizen of Austria and North Macedonia, who had been sentenced to 22 months in jail in April last year for attempting to travel to Syria to join IS. He had been released early because of his young age, in December and had even attended a de-radicalisation programme. Officials said he had been armed with an automatic rifle, a hand-gun and a machete. Austria announced three days of mourning.
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