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An explosion in the course of the investigation into the terrorist attack in the center of Vienna: 43 hours after the event, Interior Minister Karl Nehammer (ÖVP) admitted mistakes in the run-up to the attack on Wednesday afternoon. The Slovak secret service had informed the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BVT) in Vienna in the summer that the assassin and IS sympathizer, who was released prematurely in December 2019, had tried, in vain, to buy ammunition this summer. “In the next steps, obviously, something went wrong in the communication,” said the minister. He therefore suggested to the Security Council which met then that an independent commission should investigate, as the SPÖ and Neos had previously requested.
At least four civilians and the killer, a 20-year-old man with dual Austrian-North Macedonian citizenship living in Vienna, were killed in the attack on Monday night and 23 other people were wounded. The deaths have now been identified. There are two women, a 24-year-old German citizen and a 44-year-old Austrian, and two men, a 39-year-old Austrian and a 21-year-old man from North Macedonia. The older man was shot in front of a fast food place on Schwedenplatz, the young man at the corner of the meat market and the farmers market. The 24-year-old German worked at the “Salzamt” bar and was shot there. The 44-year-old woman died of her gunshot wounds at the Ottakring Clinic. The injured are between 21 and 43 years old, seven of them are women.
According to the Interior Minister, the 14 detained people who came from the attacker’s environment were between 18 and 28 years old, and all had immigration records. In some cases, they would not have Austrian citizenship either. The investigations are still in full swing.
Attempt to purchase ammunition in Slovakia
The press conference of the Minister of the Interior together with the Director General of Public Safety Franz Ruf and the President of the Vienna Police, Gerald Pürstl, on the status of the investigation began an hour after the original date, around 3: 30 pm Nehammer’s renewed express praise for the fact that the police had worked “excellently” during the terrorist attack on Monday night was followed by the interior minister’s admission that “obviously something had gone wrong” of beforehand. Shortly before, former Interior Minister Herbert Kickl (FPÖ) had harshly criticized the work of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution against journalists in this context. Nehammer reacted angrily: As a minister, he had to hold back in his choice of words. However, he noted that the protection of the Constitution had been brought to this state under the former Blue Minister of the Interior.
The news of the information that the attacker, already known in Austria as an Islamist threat, had already tried in vain to buy ammunition in Slovakia in the summer, had been made public hours before the press appearance of the Interior Minister. According to a report by the “Süddeutsche Zeitung”, NDR and WDR, the BVT was immediately informed of this incident in July this year, in which the attacker wanted to buy ammunition for an assault rifle. Consequently, he was accompanied by another man, the two men had used a car for the trip to nearby Slovakia that had been registered in the name of the mother of an Islamist known to police, German media reported. This had already been confirmed by the Ministry of the Interior.
As a result, the interior minister himself came under increasing pressure on Wednesday. Finally, after the press conference, you must also provide information on the attack and the status of the investigation at the meeting of the National Security Council.
The interior minister and the police officers now see confirmed the thesis that only one perpetrator was working on the terrorist attack.
Videos as proof of the single perpetrator thesis
The reason for this is the around 20,000 videos that have now been evaluated and made available to the executive by individuals about the events on Monday night in the center of Vienna. Immediately after the crime and also on Tuesday, it was not ruled out that another perpetrator could have been directly involved in the attack.
Traces in the vicinity of Islamist circles lead from the attacker to Switzerland. Two men were arrested there Tuesday by a special police unit in Winterthur, near Zurich, an 18-year-old Swiss and a 24-year-old. According to the Zurich canton police, the two young men were in contact with the Viennese murderer. Justice Minister Karin Keller-Sutter said those arrested were “colleagues” of the perpetrator. Consequently, the three men also met in person.
