A small Austrian city is reeling after a suspected terror attack in which a knifeman killed a 14-year-old boy and injured five others in broad daylight.
A 23-year-old Syrian asylum seeker has been detained by police in connection with the incident. The suspect had sworn allegiance to Islamic State and ISIS flags were found in his home, authorities said in a press conference on Sunday.
The attack was carried out against “random” targets in the southern Austrian city of Villach. Residents of the city, which has around 60,000 residents, laid candle tributes as mourners tearfully paid their respects to the victims of the horror.
Police spokesperson Rainer Dionisio told The Independent that authorities believe the attack had an Islamist motivation.
Here is everything we know about the attack so far.
How did it happen?
Soon after 4pm on Saturday afternoon, a knifeman attacked multiple people near Villach’s main square with a folding knife.
Three of the victims of the deadly attack were in intensive care as of Sunday, one was in a stable condition and another receiving outpatient treatment.
Of the six victims, five were Austrian and one was a Turkish national. Among the wounded were two 15-year-olds, a 28-year-old, a 32-year-old and a 36-year-old.
Police revealed in the hours after the attack that a 42-year-old Syrian man, working for a food delivery company, had intervened by ramming the suspect with the car.
The driver played a “crucial role” in helping to arrest the suspect, Mr Karner said in a Sunday press conference, adding police “intervened within a very short time”.
State governor Peter Kaiser said the man's intervention “shows how closely terrorist evil but also human good can be united in one and the same nationality”.
Later speaking to Austrian media outlet Krone, the driver Alaaeddin Alhalabi said: "I was just about to pick up an order in Lederergasse when I saw all the blood and two injured people lying on the ground.
"I saw a person lying on the ground, a man was attacking other passersby - I didn't think twice and drove at him. It threw him a few metres away, then he remained lying on the ground.
“He wanted to go towards the city centre, there were children on the street - I couldn't allow that. I have children myself. If I had been faster, the 14-year-old might not have been dead.”
Amid the confusion and chaos, onlookers believed Mr Alhalabi was the “bad guy”, he explained.
Who is the suspect and what was his motive?
The suspect is a 23-year-old Syrian national who had legal residence in Austria, and had arrived in the country as an asylum seeker, police said. He is being charged with murder and attempted murder. Austrian interior minister Gerhard Karner said the suspect was a suspected Islamist who had been radicalised online.
ISIS flags were found in the suspect’s house after the attack, police chief Michaela Kohlweiss said. After seizing his electronics, police discovered the suspect had sworn an oath of allegiance to Islamic State - but he was not known to police before the attack.
“This was an Islamist attack with ties to ISIS. According to investigations, the attacker radicalised himself online in a short period,” Mr Karner told reporters. He said there was “anger about an Islamist attacker who indiscriminately stabbed innocent people here in this city”.
A number of photos and videos which were uploaded to a platform related to the suspect are currently being investigated.
Police are searching for potential additional suspects as it is unclear whether the attacker acted alone. It is also not known whether there was a connection between the suspect and the victims, although Mr Dionisio said the attacker had “randomly attacked passers-by with a knife”.
How have Austrian leaders reacted?
The attack has put migration into the spotlight - despite the suspect’s legal residence in Austria.
Far-right leader Herbert Kickl said on the X social media platform that he is "appalled by the horrific act in Villach" and wished the family of the 14-year-old victim who was killed in the attack "much strength".
He added: "At the same time, I am angry — angry at those politicians who have allowed stabbings, rapes, gang wars and other capital crimes to become the order of the day in Austria. This is a first-class failure of the system, for which a young man in Villach has now had to pay with his life.”
The Free Syrian Community of Austria distanced itself from the attack, saying that Syrians fled their homeland because they were no longer safe, and are “grateful to have found asylum and protection in Austria”.
The statement added: "Anyone who causes strife and disturbs the peace of society does not represent the Syrians who have sought and received protection here.”
Conservative party leader Christian Stocker said on X the attacker "must be brought to justice and be punished with the full force of the law".
"We all want to live in a safe Austria,” he said, adding that this means political measures need to be taken to "avoid such acts of horror in the future," he said.
According to the Interior Ministry, 24,941 foreigners applied for asylum in Austria in 2024. The largest group of applicants was from Syria, followed by Afghanistan.
Austrian president Alexander Van der Bellen called the attack "horrific”. In a post on X, he said: "No words can undo the suffering, the horror, the fear. My thoughts are with the family of the deceased victim and the injured.”
