The Syrian asylum seeker accused of carrying out a deadly stabbing rampage in Austria which killed a teenager and injured others was radicalised online, police have said.
The mass knife attack in the Austrian city of Villach on Saturday afternoon killed a fourteen-year-old boy and injured five others, three of whom are fighting for life.
Austrian Interior Minister Gerhard Karner said the 23-year-old suspect had sworn allegiance to Islamic State and was radicalised online before the attack.
Mr Karner told a news conference on Sunday that the suspect, who was stopped by another Syrian, a food delivery driver who drove his vehicle into him, had the Islamic State flag in his bedroom and had also recorded an oath of allegiance to the terror group.
He told reporters there was sadness and sympathy for the victims, then added: "But in these moments there's also understandably often anger and rage.
“Anger at an Islamist attacker who randomly stabbed innocent people here in this town."
The suspect, who had a residency permit in Austria, has been charged with murder and attempted murder.
Mr Karner said officials should have greater powers to screen asylum seekers and there would have to be "mass checks without cause in many areas" since the suspect had not attracted the authorities' attention.
IS has not claimed responsibility for the attack so far.
However, the media section of IS's Afghan branch, Islamic State Khorasan (ISIS-K), recently circulated a post by IS calling for lone wolf attacks in America and Europe following a New Year attack in New Orleans.
The bloodshed in Villach followed the thwarting of a plot in August to carry out a suicide attack at a Taylor Swift concert in Vienna by a teenager who had also sworn loyalty to IS.
Some residents of Villach, a city of about 65,000 people on the River Drava, said they refused to be intimidated by the threat of terrorism. Others expressed shock.
"Until now I felt secure, but it's another feeling now," one resident told the Associated Press. "I'm not so sure as before."
Saturday's rampage came just days after an attack on Thursday in Munich in neighbouring Germany by an Afghan national who drove his car into a crowd, injuring dozens of people.
A mother and her two-year-old daughter later died of their injuries, German authorities confirmed on Saturday.
It took place during an extended period of political tension in Austria, where the far-right Freedom Party (FPO) - which came first in September's parliamentary election - said last week it was unable to form a coalition government.
Centrist parties are now discussing whether they could try to form a government while the president considers options including moving the country towards a snap election.
Across the border in Germany, immigration and asylum has become a charged political issue heading into a snap election on February 23.
