Austria says stabbing attack suspect swore allegiance to Islamic State

The Syrian asylum seeker suspected of carrying out a deadly stabbing rampage in the Austrian town of Villach had sworn allegiance to Islamic State (IS) and was radicalised online, authorities said on Sunday.

A 14-year-old boy was killed in Saturday afternoon's attack in the centre of Villach and five people were wounded, three of whom are in intensive care, police said.

Interior minister Gerhard Karner told a press conference in Villach the 23-year-old Syrian man, who was arrested seven minutes after the first call to police, had been rapidly radicalised on the internet and the IS flag had been found in his apartment.

Karner, a conservative, told reporters there was sadness and sympathy for the victims, then added: “But in these moments there's also understandably often anger and rage. Anger at an Islamist attacker who randomly stabbed innocent people in this town.”

He said officials should have greater powers to screen asylum seekers and there would have to be “mass checks without cause in many areas” since the suspect had not attracted the authorities' attention.

Police said the suspect, who is being charged with murder and attempted murder, had recorded himself swearing an oath of allegiance to IS.

More harm would have been done had it not been for another Syrian, a food delivery driver, who saw the attacker and drove into him with his vehicle to stop him, authorities said.

IS has not claimed responsibility for the attack so far. However, the media section of its  Afghan branch, Islamic State Khorasan, recently circulated a post by IS calling for lone wolf attacks in America and Europe following a New Year attack in New Orleans, according to Site Intelligence.

The bloodshed in Villach came after the thwarting of a plot in August to carry out a suicide attack at a Taylor Swift concert in Vienna by a teenager who had also sworn loyalty to IS.

Some residents of Villach, a town of about 65,000 people on the River Drava, said they refused to be intimidated by the threat of terrorism. Others expressed shock.

“Until now I felt secure, but it's another feeling now,” said Siegfried.

“I'm not so sure as before.”

Saturday's rampage came days after an attack on Thursday in Munich in neighbouring Germany by an Afghan national who drove his car into a crowd, injuring dozens of people, two of whom later died.

It took place during an extended period of political tension in Austria, where the far-right Freedom Party (FPO), which came first in September's parliamentary election, said last week it was unable to form a coalition government.

Centrist parties are discussing whether they could try to form a government while the president considers options, including moving the country towards a snap election.

Across the border in Germany, recent immigration from predominantly Muslim countries and the integration of asylum seekers has become a charged political issue heading into a snap election on February 23.

Railing against illegal immigration and pledging to increase deportations to countries such as Syria and Afghanistan, to which it is illegal to deport people, are central to the FPO's platform. The FPO seized on the Villach attack.

“No migrant would be able to commit murder or any other crime in our country if they were not in Austria in the first place,” said FPO leader Herbert Kickl.

Officials from other parties condemned the attack while calling for the country to remain united.

Conservative chancellor Alexander Schallenberg, whose government is serving in a caretaker capacity, said on social media platform X: “The Islamist perpetrator will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. Hatred, intolerance and extremism have no place in our open, pluralistic society.”

Reuters