The Syrian asylum seeker suspected of carrying out a deadly stabbing rampage in the Austrian town of Villach had sworn allegiance to Islamic State and was radicalized online, authorities said on Sunday.
A 14-year-old boy was killed in Saturday afternoon’s attack in the center of Villach and five other people were wounded, three of whom are in intensive care, police said.
Interior Minister Gerhard Karner told a press conference in Villach that the 23-year-old Syrian man, who was arrested seven minutes after the first call to the police, had been rapidly radicalized on the internet and that the Islamic State (IS) flag had been found in his apartment.
“There’s compassion, there’s sadness, but in these moments there’s also understandably often anger and rage,” Karner, a conservative, told reporters. “Anger at an Islamist attacker who randomly stabbed innocent people here in this town.”
Karner also said the authorities 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.
Police said the man, who is being charged with murder and attempted murder, had recorded himself swearing an oath of allegiance to IS.
