A man has stabbed six people in southern Austria, including a 14-year-old boy who has died from his injuries.
The 23-year-old man attacked six passersby in the city of Villach on Saturday afternoon, according to police.
A nearby driver spotted the man and drove into him to halt the attack, police said.
Officers said the suspect is a Syrian national with legal residence in Austria and has been detained.
Police spokesperson Rainer Dionisio said the attacker was “observed by a witness – a food delivery driver saw it and rammed him with his vehicle, and at the moment it looks like he was thus able to prevent him from causing further damage”.
The victims were all male and aged between 14 and 32, and it is unclear if they were known to the attacker. Two were seriously injured and two sustained minor injuries, and the teenager died.
Police later said a sixth person, also a man, was injured in the attack. They did not give details of his condition.
Mr Dionisio said they had not yet determined a motive but were investigating the suspect’s background.
“We have to wait until we get secure information,” he said.
The weekend attack shocked people in Villach, a southern city in the province of Carinthia, which borders Italy and Slovenia.
Such attacks are very rare in Austria. A jihadist killed four people in Vienna in a shooting rampage in 2020 that was the country’s deadliest assault in decades.
Candles are lit at the scene where the 14-year-old boy was killed. Pic: AP
Carinthia governor Peter Kaiser expressed his sympathy for the family of the teenage boy who was killed.
“This outrageous atrocity must be met with harsh consequences,” he said.
“I have always said with clarity and unambiguously – those who live in Carinthia, in Austria, have to respect the law and adjust to our rules and values.”
The leader of the far-right Freedom Party, Herbert Kickl, said on X that he was “appalled by the horrific act in Villach” and wished the family of the 14-year-old victim who was killed in the attack “much strength”.
“At the same time, I am angry – angry at those politicians who have allowed stabbings, rapes, gang wars and other capital crimes to become the order of the day in Austria,” Mr Kickl added.
Austria’s interior minister Gerhard Karner is expected to travel to Villach on Sunday.
Police said it was unclear whether the suspect had been acting on his own or with other people, and are continuing to look for potential further suspects.
Meanwhile in Germany on Saturday, police confirmed a two-year-old girl and her mother had died after a car had been driven into a crowd in Munich on Thursday.