A mass shooting in Vienna Austria has left two dead and many injured with one suspect shot dead by the police while another remains on the run. Reuters. Austria's Chancellor Sebastian Kurz described the shooting as a terror attack. Police and the military are responding to the attack and protecting critical sites from attack. The attackers were well armed with automatic firearms and seemed very organized. The attack occurred on the streets near a Jewish Synagogue though it is unclear if they were the target of the attack. The attack occurred just hours before Austria was due to be locked down for the Coronavirus. No motive has been released for the attack though Europe has been dealing with a resurgence of Islamic terrorism.
My Comment:
This is a pretty major terror attack and is a major step up then the mass stabbings we have seen recently in France. The attackers in this case were very well armed and looked semi-professional. There are video clips on Twitter that I have watch that show they know how to handle their weapons. I don't think this is a random lone wolf attack but an organized terror attack.
It is significant that the attackers had fully automatic rifles, from what I saw some kind of AK variant. Austria obviously has very strict gun laws and I doubt that they could have obtained these weapons legally. That suggested they had some support to get those weapons, either funding to buy them on the black market or they were given to them by their handlers.
This situation doesn't appear to be over either. One of the attackers escaped. I know that every mass shooting supposedly has more then one shooter but in this case it looks to be true. One attacker was shot and killed but with one man still on the run it's very possible there will be follow up attacks.
I won't speculate too much on motive other then it's very possible that it is Islamic terrorism. Without a clearer picture of who the attackers were it's hard to determine motive but it's clear that Islamic terrorism is again on the rise in Europe. But it could be almost anything at this point.
The "good" news is that Vienna is going into lockdown again due to the Coronavirus. Argue the merits of doing so all you want but it does help catch this guy. Not only will he draw suspicion as he flees, he will also have dramatically fewer targets to attack as businesses close and people stay inside their houses. This attack happened at the last possible moment for Vienna and it's likely to be stopped soon.
If it does turn out to be an Islamic terror attack then it's a very concerning development. ISIS and al-Qaeda are largely considered to have been defeated. I don't think they could pull this kind of attack off. That means either I was wrong about that, which is terrible development, or that the local radicals are a lot more organized then we think. Either way it's not a good development.
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