Austria let terrorist slip through the net
VIENNA: Austrian authorities have admitted to catastrophic security failings that led to the deadly gun rampage in Vienna by a convicted Islamic State sympathiser.
Interior minister Karl Nehammer said intelligence services had received a warning from neighbouring Slovakia that the assailant had tried to buy ammunition, and admitted “a failure of communication” had followed.
The gunman, identified as 20-year-old dual AustrianMacedonian national Kujtim Fejzulai, was killed by police after going on a shooting spree
in Vienna on Monday (local time), killing four bystanders.
Police detained 14 people in the wake of the shooting, the first major attack in Austria for decades and the first blamed on a jihadist.
They were “aged 18 to 28, from minority communities and some aren’t Austrian citizens”, Mr Nehammer said.
Police say “it’s possible they supported” the gunman but their exact role in the tragedy was unclear.
The authorities now say Fejzulai acted alone, following initial fears that more assailants could still be at large.
Fejzulai had been convicted and sentenced to 22 months in prison in April last year for trying to travel to Syria and join the Islamic State terrorist group.
But he was released on probation in December and had been referred to organisations specialising in deradicalisation programs.
Islamic State, which has claimed numerous deadly terrorist atrocities in Europe, issued a statement saying a “soldier of the caliphate” was responsible for the shooting.
The gunman opened fire indiscriminately in the historic centre of the city just hours before Austria imposed a coronavirus lockdown, when people were out in bars and restaurants enjoying a final night of relative freedom.
Security has been tightened in the city. Flowers and candles were laid out at the scene of the attack, where chalk circles drawn on the ground by investigators to mark out shell casings were still visible.
Mr Nehammer told reporters that the BVT domestic intelligence agency had been warned by Slovakia that Fejzulai was attempting to buy ammunition.
“In the next steps there was clearly a failure of communication,” he said.
He accused his far-right predecessor Herbert Kickl of being responsible for the security failings.