Fatal knife attack in southern Austria deemed Islamic terror incident

A pedestrian walk past candles at the site of the stabbing attack in Villach, Austria (Darko Bandic/AP)

Austrian authorities have classified a fatal knife attack in the southern city of Villach as an “Islamic terror incident”.

The suspect, a 23-year-old Syrian man, stabbed six people in broad daylight in the city on Saturday, killing a 14-year-old boy and wounding five others. He was arrested after the attack.

Interior minister Gerhard Karner said on Sunday he felt “anger about an Islamist attacker who indiscriminately stabbed innocent people here in this city”.

The attack occurred on Saturday (Wiesflecker/Kleine Zeitung/AP)

It was the second deadly jihadi attack in Austria in recent years.

In November 2020, a man who had previously attempted to join the Islamic State group carried out a rampage in Vienna, armed with an automatic rifle and a fake explosive vest, killing four people before being fatally shot by police.