Vienna gun attack by Islamic State sympathizer shatters an evening of revelry
By Denise Hruby and Loveday Morris,
Leonhard Foeger Reuters
VIENNA — Peering out a window at Vienna’s main synagogue compound on Monday evening, Rabbi Schlomo Hofmeister watched as a gunman opened fire on customers in the bars and restaurants of the city’s main nightlife district.
The shots rang out — dozens of volleys, perhaps hundreds, he isn’t sure — sending people fleeing through the streets in panic or into bars to seek cover. The attacker followed them inside, he said. More gunfire followed.
The Vienna attack, which left at least four civilians and one perpetrator dead, unfolded as the city’s residents relished a few final hours of revelry before a new coronavirus lockdown. It came amid a rise in extremist violence in Europe, with four people killed in knife attacks in France over the past month.
On Tuesday, authorities said that a suspect killed by police was an Islamic State sympathizer who was heavily armed with an assault rifle and wore a fake suicide belt. While police initially said there were multiple attackers, they appeared less sure of that on Tuesday morning, as the search for accomplices continued.
“It was an attack motivated by hate — hate for our core values, hate for our way of life, hate for our democracy in which all people are equal in rights and dignity,” Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said in a morning news conference. “But it’s clear that we will not be intimidated by the terrorists,” he said. “It is a battle between civilization and barbarism, and we will fight this battle with all determination.”
[Coordinated shootings rock Vienna]
Two morning arrests were made in the city of St. Polten, about 40 miles west of Vienna, according to the national Austria Press Agency (APA), although it remained unclear whether those detained were suspected perpetrators.
The gunman shot by police had been “radicalized” and felt “closely connected” to the Islamic State group, Austria’s interior minister, Karl Nehammer, told a news conference. He did not give further details of the attacker’s identity but was quoted by the APA as saying the man was 20, had Macedonian roots and was known to authorities.
It was around 8 p.m. when the gunfire began. The area around the synagogue is known as Vienna’s “Bermuda Triangle,” with a reputation for bars where one can disappear during a night of heavy drinking.
Hofmeister said he could not be sure about the number of shooters but that he saw at least one attacker who seemed “professional.”
“He wasn’t shooting around randomly. It was very targeted and coordinated,” the rabbi said. He called the police.
Lisi Niesner
Reuters
A police officer holds a weapon as he walks through Vienna on Tuesday.
Hofmeister said there was no indication that the synagogue was a target. The building was closed at the time, and there was no activity inside, whereas the streets outside in the Innere Stadt neighborhood were busy.
“We are here in a popular nightlife district, the nightlife district of the city,” he said. “It was a very warm evening, so a lot of people were out, and it was the evening before the lockdown.”
As midnight approached, at least one suspect had been killed by law enforcement, but authorities said the situation remained active. Heavily armed officers swarmed the capital, blocking roads and searching vehicles. Medics set up a triage area to treat the wounded.
Law enforcement updated the public on the chaos in the city center. There had been several exchanges of fire in the city center, they said. Police urged residents to stay inside and refrain from sharing videos and photos from the ongoing attack.
[After knife attack kills three at church in Nice, Macron says France will not give in to terrorism]
According to their initial assessment, six locations were targeted. After shooting began near the synagogue, gunfire was also reported on the city’s Morzinplatz, Salzgries, Feishmarkt, Bauermarkt and Graben streets, said Harald Sörös, a spokesman for the Interior Ministry. Investigators were still making assessments based on witness statements, the ministry said.
As the shooter — or shooters — roamed the streets, an elderly man, an elderly woman, a young passerby and a waitress were killed “in cold blood,” Kurz said. Fourteen people were injured, including a police officer who stepped between civilians and a gunman, he said.
Sara, a 20-year-old Albanian who moved to Vienna a year ago, was drinking coffee nearby. She heard shots but did not think it was a “big deal,” she said. Sara said she was too scared to have her last name published, with attackers still potentially on the loose.
“We thought it was maybe a stupid guy shooting at someone or a fight on the street,” she said.
Then people began running. They moved to another bar. “A guy came to us running and told us it was a terrorist attack,” she said. “And then we were scared. We saw the panic. We saw a girl, she was running, she was injured. She was crying.”
Sara lives in an apartment in the area and said she barely slept. Before Monday night, she had thought Vienna was the “safest city in the world,” she said. “We never expected this to happen. I don’t know how we are going back to our normal lives after this.”
Residents of Vienna were asked to stay home from work and school if possible on Tuesday, as it was unclear whether an attacker remained at large.
Despite some of Europe’s most lax gun ownership laws, mass shootings are rare in Austria. Still, the initial reports that a synagogue may have been attacked brought back memories of 1981, when Palestinian militants armed with automatic weapons and grenades attacked the main synagogue during a bar mitzvah service and killed two people.
Alex Halada
AFP/Getty Images
An Austrian policeman overlooks an area in Vienna after a shooting in the city center.
President Trump called the assault “yet another vile act of terrorism in Europe.”
“These evil attacks against innocent people must stop. The U.S. stands with Austria, France, and all of Europe in the fight against terrorists, including radical Islamic terrorists,” he posted on Twitter.
[After knife attack kills three at church in Nice, Macron says France will not give in to terrorism]
Other world leaders expressed condolences. “Islamist terror is our common enemy,” German Chancellor Angela Merkel said in a statement. In France, three knife attacks have been carried out within a month after the French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo republished cartoons depicting the prophet Muhammad.
Two people were stabbed outside the publication’s former offices in late September, while two weeks ago a middle school teacher was beheaded. Last week, three people were killed in a church in Nice, in what French President Emmanuel Macron described as “Islamist terror.”
“We, the French, share the shock and sadness of the Austrians after an attack in Vienna,” he tweeted. “It is a friendly country that is under attack. This is our Europe. Our enemies need to know who they are dealing with. We won’t give in to anything.”
It was a sentiment shared by Barbara Lovett, a 52-year-old opera singer manager who was an hour into watching a three-hour performance at the city’s opera house when the shooting started a half-mile away. It was only when she turned to her phone at 10 p.m. when the performance ended that she realized what was happening. Police held the audience in the building.
Members of the orchestra began to play as they waited to be allowed to go home. “This is Vienna,” Lovett said, famed for its opera and for producing classical composers such as Mozart, Strauss and Schubert. “We have to play music. That’s what we know.”
Morris reported from Berlin. Luisa Beck in Berlin contributed to this report.
Coordinated shootings rock Vienna
After knife attack kills three at church in Nice, Macron says France will not give in to terrorism
