Pressmediaofindia
Related Articles
17-02-2025
VIENNA: A stabbing in Austria that killed a 14-year-old boy and wounded five others was an Islamist attack, Austrian officials have said.
The attack took place on Saturday at Villach, a town near the border with Italy and Slovenia.
A 23-year-old Syrian asylum seeker was detained at the scene.
Interior Minister Gerhard Karner said an Islamic State group flag had been found in his apartment, while state police chief Michaela Kohlweiss said he had sworn allegiance to the group.
Speaking at a news conference on Sunday, Karner said this was an “Islamist attack with IS links by an attacker who, according to the investigations so far, was obviously radicalised online, via the internet, within a very short space of time.
“So those in a position of responsibility, the police, the authorities, must draw the necessary conclusions from that.”
Karner said the suspect had a valid residence permit, no criminal record, and had not previously attracted the attention of authorities.
Authorities previously said the suspect had a temporary residence permit and was waiting for a decision on his asylum application.
The attack took place around 16:00 local time (15:00 GMT) near the town’s main square.
Three of the five people injured in the stabbing are still receiving hospital treatment. Two of them were in a serious condition as of Saturday evening.
A delivery worker, also a Syrian man, who had driven his vehicle at the attacker helped prevent more injuries, police said.
The attack comes amid a national debate over asylum laws and an election last year that saw the far-right Freedom Party come out on top for the first time.
The party has failed to form a coalition government, leaving Austria’s President Alexander Van der Bellen weighing up whether to call a snap election, form a minority government or invite other parties or a group of experts to try and form an administration.
Herbert Kickl, the head of the Freedom Party, seized on the Villach attack, saying on Saturday that Austria needs a “rigorous crackdown on asylum”.
Austria’s far-right populist Freedom Party says it has ended its attempts to form a coalition government with the conservative People’s Party, OVP.
The announcement follows several weeks of heated negotiations and marks the second time coalition talks have failed since September’s election.
The OVP first attempted to form a three-party coalition with the Social Democrats and the liberal NEOS, then a two-party coalition with the Social Democrats but both efforts collapsed.
With the Freedom Party (FPO) unable to form a government, Austria is now in an unclear political situation.
The leader of the Freedom Party, Herbert Kickl, has called for swift new elections and blamed OVP for the collapse, accusing the party of being unwilling to make compromises and playing “power games”.
“Although we made concessions to the OVP on many points, they were not prepared to make decisive compromises. The OVP was concerned with power games and posturing, we, the Freedom Party, were concerned with security, prosperity and honesty.”
Earlier, Kickl told President Alexander Van der Bellen that he was giving up the mandate to form what would have been Austria’s first far-right-led government since the FPO was founded by former Nazis in the 1950s. (Int’l News Desk)
