Vienna terror attack kills 2, 15 injured
Gunmen opened fire on people enjoying a last particular date at Vienna's cafes and restaurants before a coronavirus lockdown Monday in what authorities said was a terrorist attack that left at least two dead including among the attackers and 15 injured.
Hours following the gunfire flared up Austria’s chancellor Sebastian Kurz said “We are victims of a despicable terror attack in the federal capital that is still ongoing”.
“One of the perpetrators was neutralized, but several perpetrators may actually still be on the loose,” he said. “They appear to also, asfar as we realize, be perfectly equipped, with automated weapons. So they were very well prepared.”
Police said that several shots were fired soon after 8p.m. (1900 GMT) on a lively street in the metropolis center and that there have been six shootings locations. Unverified footage on social media showed gunmen walking through the streets, apparently shooting at persons randomly, wounding several.
The motive was under investigation, but Kurz said the possibility it had been an anti-Semitic attack can't be ruled out, considering that the shooting started outside Vienna’s main synagogue. It had been closed at that time.
Vienna Mayor Michael Ludwig said 15 persons were hospitalized, seven with major wounds.
Oskar Deutsch, the top of the Jewish community in Vienna,said it was not clear whether the main synagogue have been targeted.
Rabbi Schlomo Hofmeister said he saw at least one personshoot at persons sitting outside at bars in the pub below his window.
“These were shooting at least 100 rounds just outside ourbuilding,” Hofmeister said.
“Each one of these bars have tables outside. This evening is thelast evening prior to the lockdown,” he added. “By midnight, all bars and restaurants will be closed in Austria for another month, and lots of people probably wanted to use that evening in order to go out.”
French President Emmanuel Macron tweeted that the French“share the shock and grief of the Austrian persons hit by an attack tonight.”
“After France, this is a friendly country that has been attacked. This is our Europe. ... We won't surrender,” he wrote.
France has endured three attacks blamed on Muslim extremists recent weeks: the wounding of two persons outside satirical newspaper CharlieHebdo’s old headquarters; the beheading of a schoolteacher who showed student caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad; and a deadly knife attack Thursday in a church in the Mediterranean city of Nice.
Austria’s chancellor condemned all the attacks.
