THE MARTIAL ARTS HEROES OF VIENNA ATTACK
TURKISH MIXED MARTIAL ARTS FIGHTERS WENT TO AID OF DAESH SHOOTING VICTIMS
TWO Turkish mixed martial arts fighters have been hailed heroes for ignoring danger and helping injured victims of the Vienna terror attack.
Friends Recep Tayyip Gultekin and Mikail Ozen told Turkish media they were in the city centre when they heard gunfire and rushed to help a woman who injured her foot in the panic.
Mr Gultekin, 21, carried her to a nearby restaurant for medical help and then returned to join Mr Ozen, 25, before he was shot in the leg. The two men found a policeman, who was also shot, and carried him to an ambulance.
Their heroics were revealed as the gunman who killed four people was named as 20-year-old Kujtim Fejzulai – who had been sentenced to 22 months in prison in April last year for attempting to join Daesh in Syria.
He was not thought to be a risk and was let out of jail after just eight months due to his age. Fejzulai, who was armed with an automatic rifle, a handgun and a machete, and had on a fake explosive vest, was killed by police nine minutes after Monday night’s attack began in Austria’s capital.
He posted pictures of himself with the weapons on Instagram shortly before the attack (pictured). Initially, police said multiple gunmen at six locations were involved in the shooting spree, which began at around 8pm.
But investigators rowed back from that claim yesterday and said officers were still trying to determine if others were involved – and if they were on the run. However, schools were shut and the public ordered to stay away as police made 14 arrests and searched 18 properties.
Those who died in the attack were an elderly woman, an elderly man, a young male passer-by and a waitress. More than 20 were wounded.
Austrian chancellor Sebastian Kurz said the attack was ‘clearly an Islamist terror attack’.