Investigations in Austria – authorities had important information before the terrorist attack in Vienna – News

• After the terrorist attack with at least four fatalities in Vienna, investigators assume that it is a single perpetrator.
• The search for accomplices continues.
• Slovak police had already noticed the murderer killed while trying to buy ammunition. A police spokeswoman told Slovak TV station TA3.

The Bratislava Police Station wrote on Facebook: “The Slovak police received information in the summer that suspected people from Austria were trying to buy ammunition in Slovakia. But they were unable to complete the purchase. “The information was immediately forwarded to the Austrian police.

No further information is desired so as not to jeopardize the investigations in Austria. The opposition SPÖ then asked the Vienna Interior Ministry to clarify what happened to this information and why the Interior Minister did not act.

In response to the terrorist attack, the National Council will hold a special session on Thursday. Federal Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, Vice Chancellor Werner Kogler, Interior Minister Karl Nehammer and Justice Minister Alma Zadic want to make statements.

That happens

On the spot, Monday night, a 20-year-old Austrian with roots in northern Macedonia walked through a nightlife district near Vienna’s main synagogue with an assault rifle, pistol, machete, and fake. explosive belt. According to witnesses, he fired indiscriminately in crowded places.

Four people were killed in the attack and at least 22 other people were injured. After nine minutes, the police shot the attacker. The Islamic State (IS) terrorist militia announced Tuesday night that a “soldier of the caliphate” had carried out the attack.

A Swiss woman was also slightly injured in the attack. This was announced by the FDFA Department on Twitter.

14 preliminary arrests

After a feverish search for more perpetrators Tuesday night, Austrian authorities recently took on a single killer. “Information is growing considerably that it is a single perpetrator. However, we have taken enormous security measures in public space, ”said the head of the highest police authority, Franz Ruf, in ORF on Tuesday.

14 people close to the perpetrator were provisionally detained in the hours after the attack and 18 apartments were searched. There is concern for future actions. Interior Minister Nehammer said Tuesday that it is in a “sensitive phase”, in which it must be guaranteed that there are no acts of imitation.

More criticism of the Austrian police

Austrian security authorities must also wonder why dual Austrian and North Macedonian citizenship was able to carry out the attack. The 20-year-old was sentenced to 22 months in prison in April 2019 for belonging to a terrorist organization after attempting to travel to Syria and join the Islamic State. Instead of July, he was released in early December 2019.

Chancellor Kurz told ORF: “The decision that the perpetrator was released was definitely wrong.” The search for accomplices is important now. “The terrorist did not fall from the sky, there must have been people who seduced and radicalized him.” He called for a greater commitment from the EU against political Islam, which endangers freedom and the European way of life. “I await the end of misunderstood tolerance,” he told “Die Welt” newspaper.

Nehammer said that the perpetrator managed to convince judicial authorities of his de-radicalization before being released. “There was an early release of a radicalized man.” When asked if the man was observed by the constitutional protection authorities after his release, the minister did not give a clear answer. But he was able to move freely.