14-year-old Boy Killed, Five Others Injured In Austria Attack

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A 23-year-old man was alleged to have stabbed several passers-by in the Austrian city of Villach, killing a 14-year-old boy and injuring five other people, police said on Saturday.

Police said that two of the wounded sustained serious injuries. Police had initially reported that only four people had been injured in the attack.

The alleged perpetrator is a Syrian national who had a valid residence permit for Austria, police added. He was detained shortly after the attack.

The stabbing incident took place on Saturday afternoon in Villach city centre in the southern Austrian state of Carinthia.

Quick-thinking eyewitness

An eyewitness who saw the attack hit the suspect with his car. The suspect was arrested shortly afterwards.

The eyewitness was identified as a 42-year-old man who was also originally from Syria.

Police spokesman Rainer Dionisio said that the eyewitness had probably prevented the alleged attacker from committing further crimes. “This led to us being able to arrest him immediately,” Dionisio said.

It was initially unclear whether the suspect was a lone offender and police searched for further suspects.

The Carinthian State Office for State Security and Counter-Extremism and criminal investigators were conducting a probe into the events.

Politicians horrified

Politicians from Austria’s political parties said they were horrified at the news.

“We must pull out all the political stops to prevent such atrocities in future,” Christian Stocker, leader of the ruling conservative Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP), said on X.

Herbert Kickl, the leader of the right-wing Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ), spoke of a “system failure of the first order” and once again championed his restrictive “Fortress Austria” migration policy.