Four dead in the attack in Vienna

He works as a consultant and has his home office next to Ruprechtsplatz. When DN meets Michael Pichler, where the 20-year-old killer was shot by police in Vienna just 17 hours earlier, it’s in a hometown he says he doesn’t recognize.

– This kind of thing doesn’t happen in Vienna, he says.

– But I felt like I wanted to see what this actually looks like now, before I go home with my daughters and try to talk to them. I think the hardest part is talking to them properly. What do you say?

The daughters are 14 and eight years old respectively and had already gone to bed Monday night when news of the terrorist attack began to arrive. On Tuesday night, the situation was that four civilians, two men and two women were killed, while 22 people are said to have been injured, including a policeman.

– This morning, before I had time to talk to her, the 14-year-old girl was already on social networks reading and absorbing all kinds of rumors. Now it takes a lot to handle kids, says Michael Pichler.

In the downtown neighborhood Vienna’s entertainment district, often called the Bermuda Triangle, is pretty empty the next night, but the traces of the event are palpable. Outside Bar Bin, where more yellow markings on the asphalt show where covers have been found, only guests seeking protection have left overturned chairs and lots of glass.

At 50 meters, at the top of a hill, there is another bar, Meinz, which is in front of the Israeli Cultural Center and the Synagogue. Many candles are lit in a window. This is where a guest died.

Another 50 meters away, at Friedmannplatz, several international television companies are filming three large wreaths lined up against a fence in memory of the dead. They had been brought there by Chancellor Sebastian Kurz and Federal President Wolfgang Sobotka.

Back to Ruprechtsplatz, below the church of St. Ruprecht, the oldest in Vienna. The closest neighbor is a bar where a young waitress was shot and killed, and within the dimly lit little square the mark of the yellow cross lights up where the 20-year-old assailant fell by a police bullet.

This young man was born in Vienna, but was an Austrian and North Macedonian citizen. His parents come from North Macedonia and, according to the Reuters news agency, have roots in Albania.

Among the little information that authorities have provided so far on the dead assassin is that in April last year he was sentenced to 22 months in prison for trying to go to Syria to join the Islamic State, IS. However, he was already released at eight months, in December last year, in reference to his young age.

When the police are late On Monday night he took him to the home of the 20-year-old, findings were made that, according to Interior Minister Karl Nehammer, showed that he was still sympathetic to ISIS. The minister mentioned that the 20-year-old in connection with the attack had posed for a photo on Instagram with an automatic weapon and a machete and expressed his support for the terrorist movement.

Here, on Ruprechtsplatz, where the 20-year-old’s terrorist path ended, now stands Mirsa, who lives in an apartment in the house where the waitress was shot. He himself comes from Sarajevo, fled the war in Bosnia at 18 and says “I’ve seen a lot.”

– But I can’t understand this, he says.

Last night he was on the streets in the balsamic before the month-long pandemic shutdown that awaited the people of Vienna. He heard the shots, shows a movie he took with his mobile phone where desperate police try to drive people away to safety.

– I heard five or ten shots right next to where I was. But I didn’t see anyone meet.

What do you think of what happened?

– That it cannot be a human being who does this. No religion can accept this. It’s crazy, there is no war between religions.

He also says that he thinks there must have been more than one shooter.

– I think the distance from Schwedenplatz where he started and here is too long for him to have had time.

All tuesday The police pursued possible accomplices and 14 people related to the 20-year-old were brought in for questioning. According to local media, most of the people were arrested in St. Pölten, west of Vienna. However, there have also been two arrests in Switzerland.

Five hours earlier, at 12 o’clock on Tuesday, Vienna paused for a minute of silence. At the same time, church bells rang over the city, including the largest in Austria, called Pummerin, at St. Stephen’s Cathedral. It is only used on special occasions.

On Tuesday morning, the government of Chancellor Sebastian Kurz announced three days of national mourning in which the flags of public buildings are lowered at half mast. A minute of silence was announced in the country’s schools for Wednesday morning.

Kurz said in a short speech that the shooting “was definitely an Islamist terrorist attack” that “was based on hatred, against our basic values.” He continued: “We often see ourselves as a blessed island where violence and terror only occur abroad. But the stark truth is: although we are a generally safe country, we do not live in a safe world. “

But at the same time warned Sebastian Kurz for linking what happened to Muslims in general in Austria.

– This is not a fight between Christians and Muslims, or between Austrians and migrants. It is a fight between civilization and barbarism, said the chancellor.

A statement by the president of the Muslim community in Austria, Ümit Vural, spoke of “a cowardly and indiscriminate attack” which was also an “attack on the city of Vienna and an attack on all of us (…).” Our democracy, our freedom and the liberal order are stronger than violence and terror. “

When panic broke out at 8 p.m. Monday night, many sought refuge inside bars and hotels. The public at the Vienna Opera were detained by the police for several hours. One of the visitors, Barbara Lovett, told the BBC how the orchestra returned from their quarters, changed and played another 20 minutes.

– They played the German national anthem, which was previously also Austria’s, Haydn’s Imperial Quartet, he said.