Name: Vienna shooting: fourth victim dies as police make several arrests - as it happened
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Vienna shooting: fourth victim dies as police make several arrests - as it happened

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This article is more than 1 year oldThis article is more than 1 year oldGovernment confirms five people including suspected attacker have diedWe are shutting down this blog now, following a terrifying night in Vienna and a nationwide search for suspected attackers that continued into Tuesday. You can and see the main developments below:We will be closing this blog soon. Before we do, here is a post from my colleague, , who reports on theatre staff attempting to distract people trapped inside as the attack unfolded:Thousands of theatre and opera-goers caught up in last night’s attack in Vienna spent hours stuck in auditoriums and foyers as police ordered a shut down during their hunt for the attackers.Across the city’s cultural landscape, for which Vienna is famous, people who had been out enjoying the last performances ahead of a coronavirus lockdown, which started at midnight, reported being entertained by musicians who tried to divert their attention from the attack taking place outside.Many visitors to the Staatsoper, the Burgtheater, the Konzerthaus and other theatres and museums across Vienna, were not allowed to leave until given clear instructions by the police, and were obliged to leave the city centre.In the Konzerthaus, the percussionist Martin Grubinger played several encores in an attempt to prolong a performance in order to keep the unwitting concertgoers in their seats, Austrian TV reported. They were subsequently informed of the attacks and kept in the concert building, where they were provided with food and drink, until midnight.Parents whose children had been singing in the chorus at the Staatsoper were allowed to pick them up under police protection.Musicians of both the Staatsoper and the Konzerthaus orchestras kept stranded concertgoers entertained with impromptu performances, which were well documented on social media.Martin Kusej, the director of the Burgtheater, the equivalent of Austria’s national theatre, informed the public of the events at the end of a performance of Die , or Heaven’s Tent, by the British playwright Lucy Kirkwood. Kusej said he had been “in total shock” before concentrating his efforts on attempting to keep 600 theatregoers calm. The time they had to wait was spent in part in a moderated conversation between the actors and the audience.Pope Francis has said he is praying for the victims of Monday night’s attack.French police say a man in Paris who brandished a machete while walking through streets in the central Pere Lachaise area has been arrested in his hotel room.Witnesses reported the man to police, a spokesman said.There is no suggestion of a link to the Vienna attack, or even that the man planned to use the knife violently. However, authorities are on alert following a .A few more details have emerged about the Vienna attacker. He is being referred to in Austrian media as Kujtim F, a dual citizen of Macedonia and . The 20-year-old was arrested trying to cross the Turkish border into Syria, aiming to join the militant group Isis and was sentenced to 22 months in prison in April 2019.Under the rules governing youth sentences in Austria, he was released from prison early, in December 2019.According to the Austrian interior minister, Karl Nehammer, the attacker posted a picture on his Instagram account before the attack, showing him brandishing what looks like the two weapons he used. Our defence and security editor, Dan Sabbagh, reports Britain will be on the lookout for potential copycat attacks in the UK:Intelligence agencies in the UK are expected to be “particularly vigilant” in the aftermath of the Vienna attack, which comes on the heels of and two days before .It is well-established that terror attacks in one country encourage copy cats elsewhere, although the overall number of jihadist plots in the European Union (including the UK) has been gradually declining as Isis was gradually rolled up in Syria and Iraq.There were 21 such plots last year, down from 24 according to data collected by European policing agency Europol, 14 of which were foiled and four of which failed.Intelligence sources added it was unclear, at this stage, if the attacks in were timed to coincide with the last night before the start of a lockdown, when more people than usual would have been out in the evening and on the streets.But it would be prudent to take into account that timing in the run-up to the start of the England-wide lockdown expected to begin at just after midnight, in the small hours of Thursday.Witnesses to the attack in Vienna on Monday night have spoken to Austrian media about their experience of the dramatic events.“I heard shots, but I have never heard anything like that. So in my naivety, I thought it was fireworks,” one man told the tabloid . “Someone said to me, that must be gunshots. My girlfriend said to me to run into the pub and go right to the back,” he said.One 53-year-old man told APA, the Austrian press agency, how he had been taken aback by the shooting during a business dinner in a pub on the Hoher Markt. “We heard the shots and then were told: ‘turn off the lights, lock the doors’,” he said. All the guests lay on the floor. “The fear amongst the guests was just crazy,” he added.A large group of police looked after the people in the restaurant, he said, and brought in passersby from the street to safety. “After 10pm, the situation calmed down a bit.“The police were called off, and the area was said to have been secured.” People in the restaurant were asked to leave the restaurant and to get away from the city centre, he said.The Austrian president, Alexander Van der Bellen, has also just given a speech, in which he described Monday as a “dark night” following a “cowardly terrorist attack on the heart of our society”.The nation’s deepest sympathy went out to all those who were fighting for their lives, and “our tears are flowing” for the victims and their relatives, he said.The attack had targeted “life in a liberal democracy, which terrorists clearly hate deeply”. He said Austrians would “protect and defend our values” and added: “Hatred can never be as strong as our fellowship in freedom, in democracy, in tolerance and love.” He concluded his short speech with: “Long live our common and peaceful .”Here is more on the chancellor’s speech, from my colleague, Kate Connolly:He said that the “Republic of and its people have been the target of a brutal terror attack” in which “four citizens have been cold-bloodedly murdered”.Fourteen other people were injured, some of them seriously, he added.“It was an attack on our free society,” he said. “But we will defend our values.”Kurz stressed that all of those behind the attack would be pursued. He added: “The enemy, the Islamist terror, wants to split our society. But we will give no space to this hatred. Our enemies are not the members of a religious community, these are terrorists. This is not a fight between Christians and Muslims, or Austrians and migrants, but a fight between civilisation and barbarity.”He thanked the security services as well as the medical personnel and others “who through their civil courage have saved lives”. The Israelitische Kultusgemeinde (IKG) in , the organisation representing the Jewish community, has said it has closed all its synagogues and related institutes across the country, following Monday night’s attacks in Vienna.The decision affects synagogues, as well as kosher restaurants, Jewish supermarkets, schools and cultural centres, said Erich Nuler, spokesman for the IKG’s crisis committee, according to the Austrian daily .Security has been stepped up at Jewish establishments across the country, he said and community members were being urged to stay at home. Nuler said it remained unclear whether or not the attack in which two people were shot in front of the city’s main synagogue on Vienna’s Seitenstettengasse was aimed at the Jewish community.The IKG was in close contact with security authorities, he said. Nuler added that the IKG’s psycho-social counselling centre was being inundated with requests for help from community members. He said that much effort was being made to explain to children in particular what had happened on Monday evening.First details are emerging about the attacker who was shot dead by police. He was 20 years old and had north Macedonian roots, according to the interior minister, Karl Nehammer. He was a citizen of both Macedonia and and had a criminal record related to terrorist activity. Nehammer said the man had been armed with an automatic rifle, a handgun, and a machete. He was also wearing a fake explosives belt.The minister added that 15 house raids had taken place across Vienna and St Pölten, about an hour from the Austrian capital. Several people had been arrested.Kurz has just begun addressing the Austrian nation, saying the victims were an older man, an older woman, a young passerby and a waitress. He described an injured police officer who tried to stop the attacker as “brave”.Theatre- and opera-goers have described their shock as they became aware of the nearby attack while they watched the last cultural offerings ahead of a nationwide coronavirus shutdown on Tuesday.Visitors to the Staatsoper and the Burgtheater, the equivalent of Austria’s national theatre, were first made aware of the incident after the venues’ directors took to the respective stages to urge them to stay in their seats.Witnesses at the Staatsoper reported that its director, Bogdan Roscic, explained to them in front of the closed stage curtain what had happened, and told the audience that security forces had instructed they were not allowed to leave the building.One thousand people were reportedly present in the sold-out venue, as well as dozens of opera house employees. Audience members were only allowed to leave at 11.45pm, nearly four hours after the attack had begun. They were escorted by police to public transport facilities and urged to head straight home. “We were shaken, we did not know what was awaiting us. Many people were upset and exhausted,” one opera fan said.Have you been affected by the shooting?If you would like to share eyewitness accounts or news tips directly with our journalists then please get in contact . You can also get in touch by or adding the contact +44(0)7867825056.Seven people who were injured in last night’s attack remain in a “critical, life-threatening” condition, Dr Michael Binder, medical director of the Viennese health association, KAV, has told the Austrian radio programme Ö1 Journal.“Seven people are seriously injured and we’re dealing with bullet as well as stab wounds,” he said. He said not all the relatives of those who were injured have yet been informed.A spokeswoman for the health association said that in total 17 people were injured in the attack and they are being treated at several hospitals in the Austrian capital.She also confirmed that they were dealing primarily with gunshot wounds, but also with stab wounds. Ten people had medium to light injuries, she said.“The patients are in a state of shock,” she said, adding that the 28-year-old police officer who is among the injured is in a critical but stable state. No other information has been released so far about the identity of the injured.

This article is more than 1 year oldThis article is more than 1 year oldGovernment confirms five people including suspected attacker have diedWe are shutting down this blog now, following a terrifying night in Vienna and a nationwide search for suspected attackers that continued into Tuesday. You can and see the main developments below:We will be closing this blog soon. Before we do, here is a post from my colleague, , who reports on theatre staff attempting to distract people trapped inside as the attack unfolded:Thousands of theatre and opera-goers caught up in last night’s attack in...

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Vienna shooting: fourth victim dies as police make several arrests - as it happened

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