Suspect in fatal stabbing in Austria had an ‘Islamic terror motive,’ officials say

VIENNA (news agencies) — Austrian authorities said the stabbing of six people that left a 14-year-old boy dead was carried out by a man with possible connections to the Islamic State group who appeared to have acted alone.

The suspect, a 23-year-old Syrian, was arrested after the attack, which took place on Saturday afternoon in the center of the southern city of Villach, close to the main square. Police said he used a folding knife. Those wounded were two 15-year-old boys and men aged 28, 32 and 36. Two were seriously wounded and two others are also still receiving hospital treatment, while one was treated for minor injuries.

“This is an Islamist attack with an IS connection by an attacker who radicalized himself within a very short time via the internet,” Interior Minister Gerhard Karner told reporters in Villach Sunday.

State Gov. Peter Kaiser thanked a 42-year-old man, also a Syrian, working for a food delivery company who drove toward the suspect and helped prevent the situation from getting worse. “This shows how closely terrorist evil but also human good can be united in one and the same nationality,” he said.

As the focus shifted to migration and asylum-seekers, Karner said that it will ultimately be necessary to “carry out a mass screening without cause, because this assassin was not conspicuous.”

He did not elaborate on his plans. It was unclear how long the suspect had been in Austria, although authorities said he had a residence permit. Austria’s far-right leader Herbert Kickl, whose party won a national election four months ago, called for “a rigorous crackdown on asylum” in the wake of the attack.

On Sunday, Kickl said that since all other parties in Austria had failed to implement the necessary asylum restrictions, it is crucial for his party to control the Interior Ministry — which is in charge of asylum and migration — in any future government.

Last week, coalition talks in Austria collapsed for a second time when Kickl’s Freedom Party and the conservative People’s Party were unable to agree on who would oversee the Interior Ministry.

The mayor of Villach, Günther Albel, said the attack was a “stab in the heart of the city.”