Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday condemned shootings in multiple locations in Vienna, saying India “stands with Austria during this tragic time”.
“Deeply shocked and saddened by the dastardly terror attacks in Vienna. India stands with Austria during this tragic time. My thoughts are with the victims and their families,” the Prime Minister said in a tweet.
Deeply shocked and saddened by the dastardly terror attacks in Vienna. India stands with Austria during this tragic time. My thoughts are with the victims and their families.
— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) November 3, 2020
At least three people were killed, including a gunman, and 14 others injured in the shootings that took place on Monday evening in the Austrian capital, just hours before a nationwide lockdown was scheduled to come into force to stem the spread of the novel coronavirus.
A huge manhunt was under way Tuesday after gunmen opened fire at multiple locations across central Vienna, killing at least three people and wounding several more in what Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz described as a “repulsive terror attack”.
One of the suspected killers, identified as an Islamic State group sympathiser, was shot dead by police who said they were searching for at least one more assailant still at large.
The attacks, in six locations including near a synagogue in the centre of the city, were carried out by “several suspects armed with rifles”, police said on Monday night. The shooting began just hours before Austria was to re-impose a coronavirus lockdown, with people out in bars and restaurants enjoying a final night of relative freedom.
The deaths rose on Tuesday to three people, two men and a woman, police said. Vienna mayor Michael Ludwig earlier said that 15 people had been taken to hospital, seven of them seriously wounded. Police said an officer had also been hurt during the attacks.
The attacks started at around 8 pm (1900 GMT) when the first gunshots were heard in the city’s centrally located first district. Interior Minister Karl Nehammer told a press conference Tuesday that the dead attacker was “a radicalised person who felt close to IS.”
“All the signs make it clear it’s a radicalized person and a person who feels closely connected to IS.”
Police had used explosives to blast their way into the apartment of the dead man who had been “heavily armed”, the minister added. He had earlier noted that, “According to what we currently know, there is at least one attacker who is still on the run.”
It was unclear how many assailants were involved in the assault.
Source: Free Press Journal
