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Gunman killed in Vienna terror attack had tried to join IS

Two men and two woman were killed in the attack yesterday evening.

LAST UPDATE | 3 Nov 2020

austria-vienna-attack Following gunfire on people enjoying a last evening out before lockdown, police patrol at the scene in Vienna Ronald Zak Ronald Zak

AT LEAST ONE Islamic extremist rampaged through a crowded Vienna nightlife district hours ahead of a coronavirus lockdown, leaving four people dead before he was killed by police, Austrian authorities have said.

The suspect in last night’s attack – a 20-year-old armed with an automatic rifle and a fake explosive vest – was identified as a young Austrian-North Macedonian dual citizen with a previous terror conviction for attempting to join the so-called Islamic State group in Syria.

Unverified video showed the suspect, dressed in white coveralls, firing off bursts apparently at random as he ran down the Austrian capital’s cobbled streets.

Police searched 18 properties as well as the suspect’s apartment, detaining 14 people associated with the assailant who is being questioned, interior minister Karl Nehammer

Two men and two women died from their injuries in the attack -  including one German woman, according to Germany’s foreign minister. Authorities said a police officer who tried to get in the way of the attacker was shot and wounded, along with 21 other people.

Vienna’s hospital service said seven people were in life-threatening condition after the attack, APA reported.

“Yesterday’s attack was clearly an Islamist terror attack,” Kurz said. “It was an attack out of hatred — hatred for our fundamental values, hatred for our way of life, hatred for our democracy in which all people have equal rights and dignity.”

The attacker, identified as Kujtim Fejzulai, was sentenced to 22 months in prison in April 2019 because he had tried to travel to Syria to join IS. He was granted early release in December under juvenile law.

Nehammer told APA that Fejzulai had posted a photo on his Instagram account before the attack that showed him with two of the weapons he apparently used.

 

austria-vienna-attack Police at the scene in Vienna today Ronald Zak / PA Images Ronald Zak / PA Images / PA Images

(The suspect) was equipped with a fake explosive vest and an automatic rifle, a handgun and a machete to carry out this repugnant attack on innocent citizens,” Nehammer said.

He added that the evidence gathered so far shows no indication that there was a second assailant involved in the attack. People in Vienna were urged to stay at home if possible on Tuesday and children did not have to go to school. Some 1,000 police officers were on duty in the city on Tuesday morning.

The shooting began shortly after 8pm near Vienna’s main synagogue as many people were enjoying a last night of open restaurants and bars before a month-long coronavirus lockdown, which started at midnight. Vienna police chief Gerhard Puerstl said the attacker was killed at 8.09pm.

“We will unearth and chase down the perpetrators, those behind them and like-minded people and give them the punishment they deserve,” Kurz said. “We will pursue all those who have anything to do with this outrage by all available means.”

His government ordered three days of official mourning, with flags on public buildings to be flown at half-mast until Thursday.

Austria held a minute’s silence at midday, accompanied by the tolling of bells in the capital. Kurz, President Alexander Van der Bellen and other leading politicians laid wreaths and candles where the attack took place.

Fejzulai’s lawyer in the 2019 case, Nikolaus Rast, told public broadcaster ORF that his client had seemed “completely harmless” at the time.

“He was a young man who was searching for his place in society, who apparently went to the wrong mosque, ended up in the wrong circles,” Mr Rast said. “I can’t say exactly what happened.”

Fejzulai’s family “wasn’t strictly religious at all; the family wasn’t radical — it was a completely normal family”, he added. “I still remember that the family couldn’t believe what had happened with their son.”

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    Mute The Risen
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    Sep 8th 2021, 2:43 PM

    “Reflect”? Just shows the arrogance of an organisation that thinks it still wields far more power and influence than it does. Lands amounting to the value of the debt still outstanding from the various child rape and assault scandals should be confiscated with the same vigor that revenue would come after you or I if we owed anything.

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    Mute Tony Harris
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    Sep 8th 2021, 2:48 PM

    @The Risen: True, but why ignore the other travesty, developers again getting a get out of jail card by their buddies in office????

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    Mute That's FineGaelness
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    Sep 8th 2021, 3:02 PM

    @Tony Harris: Who said to ignore developers getting a get out of jail free card?

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    Mute Tony Harris
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    Sep 8th 2021, 4:14 PM

    @That’s FineGaelness: I was referring to the comment above which ignored that bit!

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    Mute Fachtna Roe
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    Sep 8th 2021, 8:15 PM

    @Tony Harris: Because yer man in the photo isn’t wearing a hi-vis. :)

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    Mute Ian Phillip Creaner
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    Sep 8th 2021, 8:49 PM

    @The Risen: i agree completely. But After you or me. You cannot come after “İ”.

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    Mute Seamus Mac
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    Sep 8th 2021, 10:45 PM

    @The Risen: the state recommended that the church pay 50% of all the redress which the church did not agree to as they knew it was impossible. On the one hand you are saying the church is in decline but on the other they are supposed to have a financial standing equivalent to the state.

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    Mute Dave Harris
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    Sep 8th 2021, 2:50 PM

    The Bishop should take a good long look in the mirror while he’s “reflecting”
    How those supposed men of god can live with themselves I don’t know

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    Mute Fiona Fitzgerald
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    Sep 8th 2021, 3:24 PM

    @Dave Harris: Indeed. He needs to reflect on the ban on birth control and the possible link with homeless families going hungry. No doubt they’d prefer to set up orphanages to export the children on commission.

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    Mute Dorothy Giselsson
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    Sep 8th 2021, 3:25 PM

    With the amount outstanding that these people owe their victims should they not just send in CAB to confiscate their assets in lieu of overdue debts?

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    Mute Pádraigín O'Sirideáin
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    Sep 8th 2021, 3:06 PM

    The church should hold no land, they should hold no wealth, if they were real Christian’s they would gladly give land to build social housing… but no, they’ll reflect on it and hope the publicity will go away, no wonder mass attendance numbers are dwindling. Shame on the church again.

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    Mute Mary Walshe
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    Sep 8th 2021, 4:30 PM

    @Pádraigín O’Sirideáin:
    So much for vows of poverty!

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    Mute Irish big fellow
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    Sep 8th 2021, 3:12 PM

    How much does the church still owe the state to pay for the agreed portion of financial compensation already paid out by the government to those who were victims of abuse by the members of the clergy?

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    Mute Robert Stevens
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    Sep 8th 2021, 2:42 PM

    The money was just resting in my account

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    Mute JusticeForJoe
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    Sep 8th 2021, 7:41 PM

    @Robert Stevens: It was resting for a long time, Ted! Good long rest!

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    Mute Amadán
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    Sep 8th 2021, 3:45 PM

    I hope they do give the land…on the stipulation that it will be turned into social housing.
    Because, you know O’Brien and every other minister will develop the builds and then hand them over to parasite landlord class.

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    Mute Tony Harris
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    Sep 8th 2021, 4:16 PM

    @Amadán: Excellent point, well made.

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    Mute JusticeForJoe
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    Sep 8th 2021, 7:41 PM

    @Amadán: This is exactly it

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    Mute JusticeForJoe
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    Sep 8th 2021, 7:42 PM

    Why you’re not an Amadán at all!

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    Mute NoPlanetB
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    Sep 8th 2021, 3:24 PM

    Do a Henry VIII reboot: Dissolution. Widespread state seizure of church lands for Social housing. Much of this land was gifted to the church in any case by Builders when they built an estate and land for church use was made available for a nominal fee. The house owners themselves paid for it whether they liked it or not.

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    Mute Joseph Duggan
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    Sep 8th 2021, 3:46 PM

    Wonder could the church show us the deeds of.all the land they have control of

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    Mute JusticeForJoe
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    Sep 8th 2021, 7:43 PM

    @Joseph Duggan: I’d be interested

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    Mute Joseph Duggan
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    Sep 8th 2021, 3:49 PM

    Biggest private landlord in the world vatican

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    Mute Ivan Genockey
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    Sep 8th 2021, 4:19 PM

    The minister should just take the land off the church for all the pain and misery they caused.
    After all they didn’t even pay up.

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    Mute Amadán
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    Sep 8th 2021, 3:43 PM

    Or, it could be more likely that they have to talk to the individual Diocese about what can be done. Those in said diocese, ordained and laity will have to be consulted.
    That’s before you get into the different orders and some that will have to go to the Vatican.
    It’s not the hegemony orginistion people think it is. It’ll take time. Probably looking at about a year.

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    Mute Fred spins kdb
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    Sep 8th 2021, 2:48 PM

    Hes the bulb off piers Morgan.

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    Mute Garreth Byrne
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    Sep 8th 2021, 4:39 PM

    Centre right and centre left governments in Ireland have operated from a base assumption that the housing demand can be left to ‘the market’. In the early 1930s FF earmarked large sums of money to local authorities for the construction of houses for people on low incomes. But that was a temporary aberration; since then the Hidden Hand of the Market has held economical sway. Catholic Bishops and lay Catholic theologians can examine papal encyclicals etc and see if the Hidden Hand concept can be morally challenged. I hope that will be a significant aspect of the Bishops’ declared ‘reflection’.

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