A 14-year-old boy has been killed after a man stabbed five people at random in Austria.
Authorities said the suspect – a 23-year-old Syrian national with legal residence in Austria – has been detained by police after the attack in the city of Villach on Saturday.
Police spokesperson Rainer Dionisio said a motive was not immediately known and that police were investigating the alleged attacker’s personal background.
“We have to wait until we get secure information,” he said, adding that a man “randomly attacked passers-by with a knife”.
The incident happened on Saturday just before 4pm local time in the centre of the city in southern Austria.
The victims were all men aged between 14 and and 32. Two were seriously injured in the attack, with the other two having sustained minor injuries.
A 42-year old man who works for a food delivery company, witnessed the incident from his car. He drove toward the suspect to intervene, police spokesperson Rainer Dionisio told Austria’s public broadcaster ORF.
Police said it wasn’t clear whether the suspect acted on his own and are continuing to search for potential further suspects.
Peter Kaiser, the governor of the Austrian province of Carinthia, expressed his condolences to the family of the 14-year-old victim.
“This outrageous atrocity must be met with harsh consequences. I have always said with clarity and unambiguously: Those who live in Carinthia, in Austria, have to respect the law and adjust to our rules and values.”
Villach is a city in southern Austria in the state of Carinthia. It is known for its carnival and is in an area that is a tourist hotspot in the summer as it includes one of Austria’s most famous lakes but otherwise attracts little attention.
“I have been in the (Carinthian police) press service for 20 years and cannot recall such an act,” Dionisio told ORF.
Erwin Angerer, a lawmaker for the far-right Freedom Party, said his party had been warning about the situation in Austria as a result of the country’s “disastrous asylum policy.”
Austria’s Interior Minister Gerhard Karner was expected in Villach on Sunday morning.
