Austrian police foil Vienna train station terror plot just days after mass stabbing left 14yo boy dead, five others injured

Austrian police have uncovered disturbing plans for a terror attack at a major rail hub just days after a mass stabbing in the country’s south left a 14-year-old boy dead and five others injured.

Austrian authorities have foiled a terror attack at a major train station in the capital city of Vienna less than a week after a mass stabbing that left a 14-year-old boy dead and five other people injured in the country’s south was declared an “Islamist attack”.

Austria’s interior ministry said police arrested a 14-year-old alleged Islamic State group sympathiser suspected of plotting to carry out a terror attack at Vienna’s Westbahnhof train station, one of the busiest train stations in the city.

A 14-year-old Austrian with Turkish roots, who had “radicalised himself on the internet” had allegedly “planned an attack”, the interior ministry said on Wednesday.

The suspect, who was thought to have been influenced by IS ideology, was arrested after Austria’s intelligence agency was alerted to his posts on social media.

Austrian police foiled the terror plot just days after a man carried out a knife attack in Villach. Picture: X

The teenager was suspected of “spreading stories and videos with Islamist” propaganda via several TikTok accounts.

Police seized several knives, handwritten sketches with attack plans, as well as instructions on how to make explosives at the suspect’s apartment.

Investigators also discovered “Islamist” propaganda material, including numerous books.

The 14-year-old was taken into custody and has since refused to make any statements, Vienna Regional Court spokesman Christoph Zonsics-Kral told AFP.

It comes less than a week after a 23-year-old Syrian asylum seeker was charged with murder and attempted murder following a mass stabbing in Villach in Austria’s Carinthia province.

Austria’s Interior Minister Gerhard Karner said the suspect had been radicalised online “in a short space of time”.

“It is an Islamist attack with IS connections,” he said after the incident which left a 14-year-old boy dead and five others injured.

During a raid of that suspect’s apartment, police found “clear evidence of Islamist radical thought”, such as IS flags on the wall, head of Carinthia police Michaela Kohlweiss said.

The man suspected of carrying out the knife attack in Villach, Austria. Picture: X

The man “randomly attacked passers-by with a knife” in the incident on Saturday, police spokesman Rainer Dionisio said.

The attack came just two days after a suspected Afghan asylum seeker rammed a car into people in the city of Munich in neighbouring Germany, killing a two-year-old girl and her mother and wounding dozens of others.

Chilling images of the arrest showed a grinning man with his index finger raised as police officers surround him with weapons.

The number of wounded increased from four earlier to five, including two who were seriously hurt, Dionisio said. The oldest victim was aged 36.

The incident unfolded just before 4pm local time.

People mourn at a makeshift memorial of candles and flowers placed at the site where a man randomly attacked passers-by with a knife in Villach, Austria. Picture: AFP

A passing food delivery rider — also from Syria — intervened, ramming his vehicle into the attacker, who was lightly hurt and was arrested “right after the attack”, police said.

Eyewitnesses said the attacker had shouted “Allahu Akbar” (God is greatest).

Carinthia Governor Peter Kaiser of the Social Democrats called for the “harshest consequences” for this “unbelievable atrocity”.

Police are seen after a knife attack near the main square in the city centre of Villach, southern Austria. Picture: AFP

“I have always said very clearly and unambiguously: Anyone who lives in Carinthia, in Austria, must respect the law and must adapt to our rules and values” he said.

“Anyone who violates these rules must face the harshest consequences; they must be put on trial, imprisoned and deported.”

Far-right leader Herbert Kickl - whose party won September’s national elections for the first time ever - said he was “appalled” by the attack, calling it a “system failure”.

“We need a rigorous clamp-down on asylum,” he said in a statement. Kickl’s Freedom Party (FPOe) this week failed in talks to form a government with the runner-up and incumbent conservatives.

Austria's Interior Minister Gerhard Karner (L) places a candle at the site in Villach, Austria. Picture: AFP

Austria hosts a large Syrian refugee population of almost 100,000. After Bashar al-Assad was ousted in Syria in December, Austria and several European countries froze pending asylum requests from Syrians to reassess the situation.

In addition, Austria has stopped family reunifications and sent out at least 2,400 letters to revoke refugee status.

The interior ministry has said it is preparing “an orderly repatriation and deportation program to Syria”.

Austria has so far only seen one jihadist attack, in 2020, when a convicted IS sympathiser went on a shooting rampage in downtown Vienna, killing four.

Originally published as Austrian police foil Vienna train station terror plot just days after mass stabbing left 14yo boy dead, five others injured