Three civilians killed and 15 seriously injured in terrorist attack in Vienna

Gunmen opened fire on people enjoying a last night in Vienna’s cafes and restaurants before a coronavirus lockdown in what authorities said was a terrorist attack that left three civilians dead and one “radicalized person.”

Two men and a woman have been killed in the attack that Austrian Interior Minister Karl Nehammenr attributed to an Islamic State supporter.

Authorities are still trying to determine if more attackers may be on the run. The people of Vienna have been urged to stay home.

Fifteen people were injured in the attack in the center of the capital, including a policeman, he said.

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Nehammer called the incident an attack on Austrian democratic society and values.

“The attacker sympathized with the militant terror group IS,” Nehammer told reporters. He declined to elaborate, citing the ongoing investigation.

“We are victims of a despicable terrorist attack in the federal capital that is still continuing,” Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said hours after the shooting broke out.

“One of the perpetrators was neutralized, but several perpetrators appear to be on the loose,” he said.

“From what we know they also seem to be very well equipped, with automatic weapons. So they were very well prepared. “

Police said multiple shots were fired shortly after 8 pm (local time) on a lively street in the city center and that there were six filming locations.

Unverified images posted on social media showed gunmen walking the streets of Vienna, apparently shooting people at random, wounding several.

The motive was being investigated, but Kurz said the possibility that it was an anti-Semitic attack cannot be ruled out, given that the shooting started outside the main synagogue in Vienna. It was closed at the time.

Interior Minister Karl Nehammer said earlier that the army had been asked to guard key locations in the city as hundreds of heavily armed police chased the gunmen. He urged people in Vienna to stay indoors and avoid the city center and encouraged parents not to send their children to school on Tuesday.

Kurz praised the police for killing one of the attackers and promised: “We will never be intimidated by terrorism and we will combat these attacks with all means.”

Vienna Mayor Michael Ludwig said 15 people were hospitalized, seven seriously injured.

Oskar Deutsch, the head of the Jewish community in Vienna, said the shooting took place outside the city’s main synagogue, but that it was unclear whether the house of worship had been targeted.

The synagogue was closed at the time, he tweeted.

Rabbi Schlomo Hofmeister said he saw at least one person shoot people sitting outside in street bars below his window.

“They were firing at least 100 rounds right outside our building,” Hofmeister said.

“All these bars have tables outside. Tonight is the last night before the confinement, ”he added.

“Starting at midnight, all bars and restaurants will be closed in Austria for the next month, and a lot of people will probably want to use that night to be able to go out.”

French President Emmanuel Macron tweeted that the French “share the shock and pain of the Austrian people hit by an attack tonight.”

“After France, this is a friendly country that has been attacked. This is our Europe. … We will not give up, ”he wrote.

France has suffered three attacks attributed to Muslim extremists in recent weeks: the injuries of two people in front of the former headquarters of the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo; the beheading of a schoolmaster who showed students caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad; and a deadly knife attack on Thursday (local time) at a church in the Mediterranean city of Nice.

All the attacks were strongly condemned at that time by the Austrian Chancellor.