What we know and what we don’t

Many questions remain unanswered after the terrorist attack in the center of Vienna. This is known about the attack and the perpetrator who was shot.

After a terrorist attack in central Vienna on Monday night, a large-scale police operation continues. An overview of what we know so far and what we don’t:

Let it be known from the writing

• The terrorist attack happened a few hours before the partial lock begins in Austria. The first shots were fired on Monday night around 8 pm near the main synagogue in a Vienna nightlife district.
• According to the police, there were six different crime scenes, including the Seitenstettengasse, the Morzinplatz, the Fleischmarkt and the Farmers market. You can read an eyewitness report from the night of the crime here. One of the places is near the synagogue. After the fact, Vienna’s city center was temporarily no longer accessible by public transport. Neither buses nor trains were heading to destinations in the historic center of the metropolis of two million.

• Armed with one Assault rifle, pistol and machete as well as one Explosive Belt Mannequin a man fired into the crowd and randomly into the bars. At least one man has fatally collapsed on a sidewalk. After nine minutes, the police shot the attacker.
• In general they were at least four passersby dead, moreover, was the alleged perpetrator shot dead by the police. 22 people were injured, Austrian Interior Minister Karl Nehammer said at a press conference in Vienna on Tuesday.
• According to the current state of knowledge, there is no evidence of other perpetrators so far, so Nehammer. The investigation was in full swing. About 1,000 officials are on duty.

We know that about the history of the crime.

• According to Austria’s Interior Minister Karl Nehammer, the attack was caused by a person Islamist terrorists. The killer was a sympathizer of the terrorist militia “Islamic State” (IS), Nehammer said.
• The man is a 20-year-old with roots in North Macedonia, Nehammer said. He had already been sentenced to 22 years in prison for belonging to a terrorist organization, but had been released early. According to a journalist from the daily “Der Falter”, the Austrian secret service knew the man because he was one of 90 Austrian Islamists who wanted to travel to Syria. Read more about it here.

So the investigation goes

• After the attack, another 18 apartments of people close to the man who became the perpetrator’s apartment in addition to the attacker’s apartment were searched. burst. 14 people were arrested and are currently being questioned, Nehammer announced.

What we don’t know

• One of the victims is a German, said Federal Chancellor Heiko Maas. The identities of the other three victims and the previously known perpetrator are not yet published or, in the case of the perpetrator, confirmed.
• The police and the Ministry of the Interior go as one political background outside. However, it is unclear whether the murdered shooter had accomplices. “The information that it is a single perpetrator is growing considerably. However, we have taken enormous security measures in public spaces,” the head of the highest police authority, Franz Ruf, said Tuesday night in ORF.
• Despite the connection to the IS terrorist militia, the specific motive for the act is as little known as a confession letter or video.
• Did Sagittarius want to spread panic in the popular nightlife district or did they choose the synagogue as their destination?
• According to the president of Israelitische Kultusgemeinde, Oskar Deutsch, both the synagogue and the office building were at the same address at the time of the first shots. is no longer in operation and closed.