Austria calls stabbing that killed teen ‘Islamist attack’

VILLACH, Austria: A stabbing that left a teenager dead and five other people injured in southern Austria was an “Islamist attack”, the interior minister said on Sunday, with a 23-year-old Syrian asylum seeker held.

Saturday´s attack in the city of Villach has shaken the Alpine nation after this week´s collapse of government talks where immigration and security were major issues. Austria had so far only seen one jihadist attack, in 2020, when a convicted Islamic State (IS) sympathiser went on a shooting rampage in downtown Vienna, killing four.

Interior Minister Gerhard Karner said on Sunday the suspect in the Villach attack --- a 23-year-old Syrian asylum seeker -- was radicalised online “in a short space of time”. “It is an Islamist attack with IS connections,” Karner told reporters in Villach in Carinthia province.

During a raid of the suspect´s apartment, police found “clear evidence of Islamist radical thought”, such as IS flags on the wall, head of Carinthia police Michaela Kohlweiss said during the press conference.

She added police did not find weapons or “other dangerous items” in the apartment, adding the suspect was under investigation for “murder and attempted murder” charges. In the attack in the centre of the city, a man went after passers-by with a folding knife, police said.