Brother sought by Austrian police after couples' murders

Austrian police searched today for a man suspected of shooting dead his brother, sister and their spouses in Vienna.

Police in the eastern province of Lower Austria said 67-year-old Josef Branis was suspected of shooting dead the two couples after a long-running family feud over rent payments that resulted in his being evicted on Monday from his sister’s Vienna apartment.

The bodies were found in two houses in Strasshof, northeast of Vienna, a community where kidnap victim Natascha Kampusch was held in a cramped underground cell until August 2006.

Police said the murders probably took place yesterday.

The crime came to light after family members alerted police last night when they could not contact Branis or the other relatives, chief investigator Leopold Etz said.

Police obtained a letter by Branis that resembled a will, Mr Etz said. In it, Branis said he did not want his brother and sister, both in their 60s, or their partners to be present at his funeral.

Authorities believe the murders could be linked to Branis’s eviction. The siblings had apparently argued for more than a year about rent increases.