A huge manhunt was underway Tuesday after gunmen opened fire at multiple locations across central Vienna, killing at least three people and wounding several more in what Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz described as a “repulsive terror attack”.
One of the suspected killers, identified as an Islamic State group sympathiser, was shot dead by police who said they were searching for at least one more assailant still at large.
The attacks, in six locations including near a synagogue in the centre of the city, were carried out by “several suspects armed with rifles”, police said on Monday night.
The shooting began just hours before Austria was to re-impose a coronavirus lockdown, with people out in bars and restaurants enjoying a final night of relative freedom.
The death toll rose on Tuesday to three people, two men and a woman, police said. Vienna mayor Michael Ludwig earlier said that 15 people had been taken to hospital, seven of them seriously wounded.
Police said an officer had also been hurt during the attacks. The attacks started at around 8 pm (1900 GMT) when the first gunshots were heard in the city’s centrally located first district.
Interior Minister Karl Nehammer told a press conference Tuesday that the dead attacker was “a radicalised person who felt close to IS.
“All the signs make it clear it’s a radicalized person and a person who feels closely connected to IS. Police had used explosives to blast their way into the apartment of the dead man who had been “heavily armed”, the minister added
He had earlier noted that, “According to what we currently know, there is at least one attacker who is still on the run.
It was unclear how many assailants were involved in the assault. Speaking to ORF, Austrian leader Kurz said the attackers were “were very well equipped with automatic weapons” and had “prepared professionally”.
He had tweeted: “Our police will act decisively against the perpetrators of this repulsive terror attack. Kurz said that while police were concentrating on the anti-terror operation, the army would take over the security of major buildings in Vienna.
Nehammer urged Vienna residents to remain in their homes and keep away from all public places or public transport. He said that children would not be expected to go to school on Tuesday.
Sirens and helicopters could be heard in the city centre as emergency services responded to the attack.
An AFP photographer said that large numbers of police were guarding an area near the city’s world-famous opera house. The location of the initial shooting was close to a major synagogue.
The president of Vienna’s Jewish community Oskar Deutsch said that shots had been fired “in the immediate vicinity” of the Stadttempel synagogue, but added that it was currently unknown whether the temple closed at the time ad been the target of an attack.
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Source: IOL
