Austria: 1 dead, 5 injured in knife attack
February 15, 2025
A 23-year-old man randomly stabbed six bystanders in the southern Austrian city of Villach on Saturday, police said.
A 14-year-old boy was killed in the attack, and five other people were injured.
The suspected attacker was arrested. He is a Syrian asylum seeker with a valid residence permit and no criminal record, police spokesman Rainer Dionisio told the French AFP news agency.
What do we know about the incident?
The incident occurred shortly before 4 p.m. local time (1500 GMT) in the center of Villach, the capital of the Austrian state of Carinthia.
According to Dionisio, a food delivery driver saw the attack and rammed his vehicle into the assailant, who suffered minor injuries and was arrested "right after the attack."
Police said it wasn't clear whether the suspect acted alone and were continuing to search for other possible suspects. His motives were also unclear, and police were investigating his personal background.
"We have to wait until we get secure information," Dionisio said.
Politicians call for consequences
After the knife attack, Carinthia's governor, Peter Kaiser of the Social Democrats, expressed his condolences to the family of the 14-year-old victim.
"This outrageous atrocity must be met with harsh consequences. I have always said with clarity and unambiguously: Those who live in Carinthia, in Austria, have to respect the law and adjust to our rules and values," he stressed.
Far-right leader Herbert Kickl, whose Freedom Party won September's national elections for the first time, said he was "appalled" by the attack, calling it a "system failure." "We need a rigorous clamp-down on asylum," he added in a statement.
Meanwhile, conservative Austrian People's Party leader Christian Stocker said on X that the attacker "must be brought to justice and be punished with the full force of the law."
The leader of the Social Democrats, Andreas Babler, also said on X that "the full force of the law" must be used.
The attack in Villach comes just two days after a car-ramming attack in the German city of Munich. A two-year-old girl and her mother died from injuries sustained in that attack.
Edited by: Rana Taha, Wesley Dockery