A 14 -year -old boy was killed and five people seriously injured in a knife attack in southern Austria.
The police said that the suspect is a 23 -year -old Syrian asylum seeker who had been detained at Villach, a city near the border with Italy and Slovenia.
The police have not yet established a reason but involved specialists in extremism in the investigation, a spokesman for BBC News said.
The incident took place around 4:00 p.m. local time (3:00 p.m. GMT) near the main square of the city. Two of the five people injured were in serious condition on Saturday evening.
A delivery worker who had led his vehicle to the attacker helped to notify more injuries, police said.
The driver – also a Syrian – said that he had witnessed the attack while he was passing and deliberately struck the knife.
The suspect was arrested shortly after by two women’s women. On Saturday evening, he was still questioned, police said.
Some control reports initially indicated a second potential striker, which led to the immediate closure of the attack by the attack.
However, local police told BBC News that they were only convinced that one knife was involved.
Austrian law means that the attacker’s identity was not released, but the police confirmed that he was a 23 -year -old Syrian who lived locally.
He had a temporary residence permit and awaited a decision on his asylum request.
The police first said that four people had been injured, but a fifth person then injured minor injuries.
The identity of the teenager who has been killed has not yet been disclosed.
The attack comes in the midst of national debates on asylum laws and a political crisis following an election last year which saw the far -right party Freedom appearing at the top for the first time.
However, he failed to form a coalition governmentLeaving the president of Austria, Alexander Van der Bellen, weigh on him an early election, to form a minority government or to invite other parties or a group of experts to try to form an administration.
Herbet Kickl, the chief of the Freedom Party, seized the attack of Villach, saying in a statement that Austria needs “rigorous repression of asylum”.
Peter Kaiser of the Social Democratic Party of the Center -Gauche – which is the governor of the Carinthic, the region where Villach is located – described the attack as an “unimaginable atrocity”.
He said stabbing should not lead to “hateful” reactions while urging the government and the European Union to tighten asylum policy.
