Vienna terrorist attack: ‘ISIS sympathizer’ kills two in Austria terror attack
Three people were killed and 15 people admitted to hospital – seven with serious injuries – in the attack on the Austrian capital on Monday night, mayor Michael Ludwig told the national broadcaster ORF.
One of the dead is a suspected gunman shot dead by police, and an officer is among the wounded, police said, as their counterparts in neighbouring Czech Republic enacted random border checks in case the attackers attempted to flee northwards.
UPDATE: Vienna attack: arrests made after four killed in shooting
One civilian was initially reported dead, but authorities later announced a second woman wounded in the attack had later died from her injuries.
An ISIS sympathiser and accomplices opened fire at six sites in central Vienna on Monday night, killing at least two people and wounding 15 others as one of the suspects was also killed.
Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz described the incident as a “repulsive terror attack”.
“They seem to also, as far as we know, be very well equipped, with automatic weapons. So they were very well prepared.”
Several attackers were still at large as police shut down and blocked off large parts of the city centre in a manhunt, Interior Minister Karl Nehammer said.
One of the gunmen was killed by police and Interior Minister Karl Nehammer described the man as “Islamist terrorist” and ISIS sympathiser even as authorities declined to give details of the other suspects.
The attacks, in six locations including near a synagogue in the centre of town, were carried out by “several suspects armed with rifles”, police said.
Police said one person had died, with public broadcaster ORF stating the individual was a passer-by.
Vienna mayor Michael Ludwig later told ORF that a second person had died of her injuries, and that 15 people had been taken to hospital, seven of them seriously wounded.
All the locations where the attacks took place were in the vicinity of a street housing the city’s main synagogue.
