When Will It End? Islamist Slaughters Teen in Knife Attack in Austria

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A small city in Austria is reeling from a horrifying stabbing attack where a knifeman killed a 14-year-old boy and injured five other victims in broad daylight.

The knife attack was carried out against “random” targets in the main square of the southern city of Villach, a small Austrian city with a population of 60,000. Residents of the city tearfully paid their respects to the victims of the attack and laid out candles to mourn their death.

The brutal attack occurred on the afternoon of February 15th, where the knifeman, identified as a 23-year-old Syrian asylum seeker by the authorities, stabbed multiple people near Villach’s main square with a folding knife.

 

As of February 16th, three of the victims of the attack remained in intensive care; one was in stable condition and another receiving outpatient care. Of the five victims, five were Austrian, and one was a Turkish national. Among the wounded were two 15-year-olds, a 28-year-old, a 32-year-old, and a 36-year-old.

Alaaeddin Alhalabi, a 42-year-old man working for a food delivery company who is also a Syrian, intervened by ramming the 23-year-old suspect with his car, according to Austrian authorities. Austrian interior minister Gerhard Karner said that Alhalabi played a “crucial role” in helping to stop the attack and arrest the suspect.

Peter Kaiser, the governor of Carinthia, where Villach is located, said Alhalabi’s intervention “shows how closely terrorist evil but also human good can be united in one and the same nationality.”

"I saw a person lying on the ground, a man was attacking other passersby - I didn't think twice and drove at him. It threw him a few metres away, then he remained lying on the ground, he later recounted.

“He wanted to go towards the city centre, there were children on the street - I couldn't allow that. I have children myself. If I had been faster, the 14-year-old might not have been dead,” Alhalabi added, further explaining that he was initially seen as the “bad guy” by the onlookers amid the chaos and confusion.

Authorities arrested the 23-year-old suspect and detained him at the scene seven minutes after police were called. The Syrian national had legal residence in Austria and arrived as an asylum seeker. Karner said the knifeman, who was named by authorities, was a suspected Islamist who had been radicalized online. The suspect is charged with murder and attempted murder.

Police found ISIS flags in the suspect’s home after the attack, police chief Michaela Kohlweiss said. Authorities also discovered after seizing his electronic devices that the knifeman swore allegiance to the Islamic State, but he was not known to the police before the attack.

“This was an Islamist attack with ties to ISIS. According to investigations, the attacker radicalized himself online in a short period,” Karner told reporters, adding there was “anger about an Islamist attacker who indiscriminately stabbed innocent people here in this city.”

Police are searching for additional suspects as authorities remain unsure if the attacker acted alone or had accomplices. It is also unknown whether there was a connection between the suspect and the victims, although police spokesman Rainier Dionisio said the attacker “randomly attacked passers-by with a knife.”

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