Daesh claims responsibility for Vienna terrorist attack

Daesh claimed responsibility in a statement on the messaging application Telegram on Tuesday, Reuters reported.

The statement was accompanied by a picture of a man, identified as “Abu Dagnah Al-Albany,” whom it said had attacked crowds in central Vienna with a pistol and machine gun before being shot dead by Austrian police.

A video of the gunman was also posted minutes later in which he was pledging allegiance to Daesh, while speaking Arabic.

The shootings took place in six different locations in central Vienna on Monday.
Austrian authorities have not ruled out the possibility that more shooters may have been involved.

Austria’s Interior Minister Karl Nehammer had announced at a news conference on Tuesday that the gunman who was shot dead sympathized with the Takfiri Daesh terrorist group. Nehammer identified the terrorist as 20-year-old Kujtim Fejzulai, who held dual Austrian and Macedonian nationality.

On Tuesday, SWAT teams raided Fejzulai’s house.

More than a dozen people have also been arrested in connection with the shootings. Security forces raided 18 different locations and made 14 arrests during a massive dragnet on Tuesday.

In a statement on Tuesday, North Macedonia’s Interior Ministry said three people who had been involved in the shooting attacks in Vienna had dual Austrian and North Macedonian citizenship.

All three were born in Austria, it said, naming the three only by initials.

Meanwhile, Vienna Mayor Michael Ludwig has announced that three people were severely injured in the Monday attacks.

Of the 24 injured people brought to Vienna hospitals, one died, 10 have been released, and 13 are still being treated, of whom three are in critical condition, he said at a news conference on Tuesday.

Separately on Tuesday, Swiss police said they had arrested two men over suspected ties to the deadly attacks in Vienna, following an investigation of possible links to the main suspect.

The two men — an 18-year-old and a 24-year-old — are Swiss citizens who were arrested in the city of Winterthur, about 10 kilometers from Zurich, police said.

“The extent to which there was a connection between the two arrested persons and the alleged assassin is currently the subject of ongoing clarifications and investigations which are being carried out by the responsible authorities,” police said in a statement.

The UK has raised its terror threat level from “substantial” to “severe” as a precaution following the attacks in Austria and earlier in France.

Britain’s hard-line Home Secretary Priti Patel made the announcement in a televised statement on Tuesday.

The change, which indicates that the security apparatus believes a terrorist attack is now “highly likely,” was materially influenced by the terrorist attacks in Vienna as well as three attacks in France in recent weeks.

“This is a precautionary measure following the terrible instances that we’ve seen in France last week, and the events that we saw in Austria last night,” Patel said.

She said that the public should continue to remain vigilant and report any suspicious activity to police, stressing that the change in threat level was not based on any specific threat.

The decision to raise the threat level has been taken by the Joint Terrorism Analysis Center (JTAC), which is housed inside the headquarters of the British Security Service (MI5).

The BBC said that while there was a sense of “inevitability” about the raising of the terror threat, intelligence had also played a part in the process.