4 dead, 15 wounded in ‘terror attack’ ahead of coronavirus lockdown in Austrian capital

VIENNA, Austria — Gunmen opened fire on people enjoying a last night out at Vienna’s cafes and restaurants before a coronavirus lockdown Monday in what authorities said was a terrorist attack that left at least four dead — including one of the assailants — and 15 wounded.

Austrian Interior Minister Karl Nehammenr told reporters that two men and a woman died from their injuries. The suspected attacker was also shot and killed by police.

Nehammer said that initial investigations indicate that the suspect who was killed had sympathized with the Islamic State group.

Authorities were still trying to determine whether further attackers may be on the run. People in Vienna have been urged to stay at home Tuesday.

Fifteen people were injured in the attack in the center of the capital, among them a police officer he said.

Nehammer called the incident an attack on Austria’s values and democratic society.

“The attacker sympathized with the militant terrorist group IS,” Nehammer told reporters. He declined to elaborate, citing the ongoing investigation.

Police said that several shots were fired shortly after 8 p.m. (1900 GMT) on a lively street in the city center and that there were six shooting locations. Unverified footage on social media showed gunmen walking through the streets, apparently shooting at people at random, wounding several.

The motive was under investigation, but Austria’s Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said the possibility it was an anti-Semitic attack cannot be ruled out, given that the shooting began outside Vienna’s main synagogue. It was closed at the time.

Nehammer said the army had been asked to guard key locations in the city as hundreds of heavily armed police hunted for the gunmen. He urged people in Vienna to stay indoors and avoid the city center and encouraged parents not to send their children to school on Tuesday.

Kurz praised police for killing one of the attackers and vowed: “We will not never allow ourselves to be intimidated by terrorism and will fight these attacks with all means.”

Vienna Mayor Michael Ludwig said 15 people were hospitalized, seven with serious injuries.

Oskar Deutsch, the head of the Jewish community in Vienna, said it was not clear whether the main synagogue had been targeted.

Rabbi Schlomo Hofmeister said he saw at least one person shoot at people sitting outside at bars in the street below his window.

“They were shooting at least 100 rounds just outside our building,” Hofmeister said.

“All these bars have tables outside. This evening is the last evening before the lockdown,” he added. “As of midnight, all bars and restaurants will be closed in Austria for the next month, and a lot of people probably wanted to use that evening to be able to go out.”

French President Emmanuel Macron tweeted that the French “share the shock and grief of the Austrian people hit by an attack tonight.”

“After France, this is a friendly country that has been attacked. This is our Europe. … We will not give in,” he wrote.

France has endured three attacks blamed on Muslim extremists in recent weeks: the wounding of two people outside satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo’s old headquarters; the beheading of a schoolteacher who showed students caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad; and a deadly knife attack Thursday in a church in the Mediterranean city of Nice.

All of the attacks were strongly condemned at the time by Austria’s chancellor.