‘It is definitely a terror attack.’
Multiple gunmen opened fire with automatic weapons in central Vienna on Monday night, killing at least one person and wounding many others, including a police officer, government officials said. They said that one attacker had been killed.
At least 15 people were wounded in the attack and were being treated in hospitals, according to the spokesman for the hospital association. At least seven of the wounds were serious, according to Vienna’s mayor.
“It is definitely a terror attack,” said Austria’s chancellor, Sebastian Kurz.
By late Monday, it was still not over.
“The police managed to eliminate one perpetrator,” Mr. Kurz sad, “but there are still several perpetrators at large.”
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Karl Nehammer, Austria’s interior minister, described the perpetrators as “heavily armed and dangerous” and said, “We are still in a battle against suspected terrorists.”
The Vienna police said the attack, which began around 8 p.m., involved “several suspects armed with rifles.” The gunmen opened fire in six different locations as they made their way through central Vienna, officials said.
An Interior Ministry spokesman, Harald Sörös, described the person who was killed as a passer-by.
The shooting took place in the heart of the Austrian capital, hours before the midnight start of a nationwide lockdown, one of several being imposed in Europe to stop the spread of the coronavirus.
“We have become the victim of a disgusting terror attack that is still going on,” Chancellor Kurz said in a televised address to the nation just before midnight.
As the night wore on, more gunfire was reported elsewhere across Vienna’s First District. Police officials described a chaotic situation, with several “exchanges of shots.” Emergency vehicles blocked off streets and a streetcar line through the area was shut down.
The New York Times