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GENEVA: Two young Swiss men were arrested near Zurich on Tuesday (November 3) in connection with the deadly shooting in Vienna, Swiss police said.
“Police investigations led to the identification of an 18-year-old and a 24-year-old Swiss national,” Zurich police said in a statement, adding that the two men had been arrested Tuesday afternoon in the northeastern city of Winterthur. “in coordination with the Austrian authorities”.
“The extent to which there is a connection between the two arrested persons and the alleged murderer is currently under investigation,” the statement said.
Four people were killed during the assault in Vienna on Monday night in which Kujtim Fejzulai, a 20-year-old described as a sympathizer of the Islamic State group, opened fire with an automatic weapon in a crowded area of the historic Austrian capital before being shot dead. For the police.
Austrian police said on Tuesday that Fejzulai was a known Islamic extremist who had spent time in prison.
Austrian security forces pounced on 18 different addresses, including Fejzulai’s home, and made 14 arrests while searching for possible accomplices and trying to determine if he had acted alone.
After reviewing CCTV footage of the shooting, which took place not far from Vienna’s historic opera house in an area where there were people in bars and cafes, Interior Minister Karl Nehammer said the video “in this currently shows no evidence of a second assailant. “
National and regional authorities in Switzerland, which borders Austria, had however indicated early Tuesday that they were investigating any possible link between the Vienna attack and Switzerland.
Zurich police said they had created a special task force to investigate any specific links to the canton of northern Switzerland, which includes Winterthur.
SEE ‘FULL CLARIFICATION’
In announcing the two arrests, the Zurich police said they were working closely with the Swiss national police and the Austrian police.
“Full clarification of any possible involvement (of the suspects) is the highest goal of the security services of both countries,” he said.
Winterthur, where the arrests were made, has made headlines before in connection with Islamic extremism, after the imam of the city’s An’Nur mosque was charged in 2017 with calling for the murder of non-practicing Muslims.
A Swiss intelligence service source told AFP that “there are currently no concrete indications of possible attacks in Switzerland.”
But the source emphasized that the level of terrorist threat in the country is still considered “high.”
Switzerland has never experienced large-scale attacks attributed to Islamic extremists, but its terror threat level rose to “high” following the deadly attacks by militants in neighboring France in 2015.
Earlier Tuesday, Swiss President Simonetta Sommaruga expressed her “solidarity” with neighboring Austria and France, which have also been affected by various Islamist atrocities in recent weeks.
“Switzerland strongly condemns terrorism and all acts of violence,” he said in a tweet.
“Our democratic values of freedom and tolerance, based on the rule of law, must serve as a shield against barbarism,” he added.
