(ANSA-AFP) - VIENNA, 16 FEB - Austria's Interior Minister
Gerhard Karner said the stabbing by a Syrian migrant in which a
14-year-old teenager died and five other people were injured
yesterday in Villach is of "Islamist matrix." "This is an
Islamist attack linked to Isis," Karner said at a press
conference in the Carinthian city where the attack took place.
The minister said the 23-year-old Syrian asylum seeker who
carried out the attack had allegedly radicalized online "in a
short time." The terrorist had radicalized himself on social
media, and particularly on TikTok, where he followed videos of
extremist Islamist preachers. This was made known by Austrian
police. An Isis flag was also found in the home of 23-year-old
Syrian Ahmad G., police reveal. It also emerged that the young
man was not under surveillance by security services, despite the
fact that the government in Vienna keeps at least 150 potential
threats under observation.
Federal President Alexander Van der Bellen expressed
"dismay," saying that "no words can erase the pain" of the
victims and their families. Politicians reacted harshly, and
Herbert Kickl, leader of the far-right FpÖ, sharply criticized
security management, calling for tougher measures to prevent
future attacks. (ANSA-AFP).
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