On 2nd November, Vienna faces a terror attack, where gunmen started the fire at 6 different locations across central Vienna, killed at least two people, and several are injured fighting for life. Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz describes it as a “repulsive terror attack”.
One of the gunmen was shot dead by police who said they were hunting for at least one more assailant still at large.
The attacks, in six locations including near a synagogue in the centre of the city, were carried out by “several suspects armed with rifles”, police said on Monday night.
The Austria was on its way to re-impose lockdown due to corona virus and attack happened just when people were relaxing and having there last night outs before another lockdown.
Police initially said one person had been killed by the gunman, with public broadcaster ORF describing them as a passer-by.
Vienna mayor Michael Ludwig later told ORF that a second person had died of her injuries, and that 15 people had been taken to hospital, seven of them seriously wounded.
Police said that an officer had also been hurt during the attacks.
The attacks started at around 8 pm (1900 GMT) when the first gunshots were heard in the city’s centrally located first district.
In a press conference in the early hours of Tuesday, Interior Minister Karl Nehammer said: “According to what we currently know, there is at least one attacker who is still on the run.”
It was unclear how many assailants were involved in the assault.
Speaking to ORF, Austrian leader Kurz said the attackers were “were very well equipped with automatic weapons” and had “prepared professionally”.
Earlier, he tweeted: “Our police will act decisively against the perpetrators of this repulsive terror attack,” adding that “we will never be intimidated by terrorism and we will fight this attack with all means”.
“It sounded like firecrackers, then we realised it was shots,” said one eyewitness quoted by ORF.
A shooter had “shot wildly with an automatic weapon” before police arrived and opened fire, the witness added.
In the busy bars and restaurants, people were told to remain indoors.
“At the beginning, I thought to myself that maybe we were making an American film or that they had drunk too much,” said waiter Jimmy Eroglu, 42.
But then he heard shots. “The police came in and said, ‘you all have to stay inside because there’s a probably a dead man there'”.
Robert Schneider, who lives in central Vienna, went out and found two lasers trained on his chest.
“Police are carrying out random checks of vehicles and passengers on border crossings with Austria as a preventive measure in relation to the terror attack in Vienna,” Czech police tweeted.
The Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi has condemned the dastardly terror attacks in Vienna.
