Austrian stabbing attacker was Islamist, minister says

VILLACH: The perpetrator of a stabbing attack on Saturday in the southern Austrian town of Villach in which a teenage boy died was a suspected Islamist who was radicalized online, Interior Minister Gerhard Karner said on Sunday.

Police have identified the perpetrator of the stabbing attack as a 23-year-old Syrian asylum seeker. It also said the attacker is believed to be a follower of Islamic State who was radicalised online.

Speaking at a press conference, Karner said the 23-year-old Syrian man arrested soon after the attack had been rapidly radicalised on the internet and that the Islamic State (IS) flag had been found in his apartment. Authorities said the man had sworn an oath of allegiance to IS.

The stabbing incident in Villach followed the thwarting of a plot in August to carry out a suicide attack at a Taylor Swift concert in Vienna by a teenager who had sworn loyalty to IS.

Saturday’s rampage also came just days after an attack on Thursday in Munich in neighbouring Germany by an Afghan national who drove his car into a crowd, injuring dozens of people, two of whom later died.

It took place at a time of political tension in Austria, where the far-right Freedom Party (FPO) – which won September’s parliamentary election – said last week it was unable to form a coalition government.

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Centrist parties are now discussing whether they could try to form a government while the president considers options including moving the country towards a snap election.

Railing against illegal immigration and pledging to increase deportations to countries such as Syria and Afghanistan, which it is currently illegal to deport people to, are central to the FPO’s platform, and the party quickly seized on the Villach attack.

“No migrant would be able to commit murder or any other crime in our country if they were not in Austria in the first place,” FPO leader Herbert Kickl said in a statement posted on social media.