Syrian man, 23, smiling as he fatally stabs 14-year-old boy and injures four others in knife attack in Austria

A 14-year-old boy was tragically killed in an incident where a Syrian refugee suddenly started attacking people in the city of Villach, Austria. This horrifying event also resulted in injuries sustained by five other individuals.

The horror unfolded just before 4pm local time in the city centre, near the main square, before the 23-year-old suspect was arrested. 

Spine-chilling images of the arrest show a grinning man with his index finger raised as police officers surround him with weapons. 

Two men are said to have sustained minor injuries, while two other men suffered from more serious wounds. The victims were aged between 14 and 32.

The individual responsible for the attack, who has not yet been identified, is a Syrian citizen who holds legal residency in Austria, as per reports from the police. He was residing in an asylum seekers’ center and did not have any prior record with the authorities.

Europe faced another assault this week involving an asylum seeker, as an Afghan refugee drove a car into a crowd in Munich on Thursday, causing injuries to 39 people. This disturbing trend highlights the ongoing challenges related to refugee integration and safety concerns in the region.

A 42-year old food delivery driver, also from Syria, witnessed the knife rampage today from his car. 

He drove toward the suspect and helped to prevent things from getting worse, police spokesperson Rainer Dionisio told Austria’s public broadcaster ORF.

Dionisio said it wasn’t clear whether the suspect acted on his own and a manhunt is currently underway for any other potential suspects. 

A motive was not immediately known and that he could not confirm whether the incident was a terrorist attack, Dionisio added. 

He also said that police were investigating the attacker’s personal background. ‘We have to wait until we get secure information’. 

‘I ask for your patience regarding the motive, as there is currently no information at all. We also do not know whether there was a relationship between the suspects and the victim; that is the subject of our investigations, which of course have to go in all directions in a case like this and take some time. I hope that we will have more information tomorrow’, Dionisio said.

Peter Kaiser, the governor of the Austrian province of Carinthia, spoke of the horrific attack in an X post this evening. 

‘The unbelievable atrocity in Villach must have the harshest consequences! Anyone who lives in Carinthia, in Austria, must respect the law. Anyone who violates this must face the harshest consequences’, he wrote.

Erwin Angerer, a lawmaker for the far-right Freedom Party, said his party had been warning about the situation in Austria as a result of the country’s ‘disastrous asylum policy.’

Austria’s Interior Minister Gerhard Karner was expected in Villach on Sunday morning.

Tesla founder and billionaire Elon Musk also commented on the attack, sharing a post showing the image of the grinning suspect and captioning it ‘Terrible’.  

The rampage comes at a time of political upheaval in Austria as the far-right Freedom Party, which came first in September’s parliamentary election, said on Wednesday it had failed to form a coalition government. The president is now considering whether an alternative to a snap election is available.

Railing against illegal immigration and pledging to increase deportations to countries like Syria and Afghanistan, which it is currently illegal to deport people to, are central to the Freedom Party’s platform and appeal, and the party quickly seized on the Villach attack.

‘We need a rigorous crackdown on asylum and cannot continue to import conditions like those in Villach,’ Freedom Party leader Herbert Kickl said in a statement.

Conservative party leader Christian Stocker said on X that the attacker ‘must be brought to justice and be punished with the full force of the law.’

‘We all want to live in a safe Austria, adding that this means political measures need to be taken to ‘avoid such acts of horror in the future,’ he said.

The leader of the Social Democrats, Andreas Babler, said on X that ‘the full force of the law’ must be used. ‘Crimes like this one simply should not happen in our society.’

Austria’s Interior Minister Gerhard Karner was expected in Villach on Sunday morning, according to Austria’s public broadcaster ORF.

On Sunday, authorities planned to establish a zone in the city center for those who want to grieve.

Police said it wasn’t clear whether the suspect acted alone and continued to search for potential additional suspects. It wasn’t immediately known whether there is any connection between the attacker and the victims.

According to the Austrian Ministry of Interior, 24,941 foreigners applied for asylum in Austria in 2024. The largest group of applicants comes from Syria, followed by Afghanistan.

Over the past two years, the number of asylum seekers has decreased significantly. In 2022, applications peaked at over 100,000, while approximately 59,000 individuals sought asylum in 2023.

Several European countries, among them Austria, said in December they are suspending decisions on asylum claims by Syrian nationals because of the unclear political situation in their homeland following the fall of Bashar Assad.

The knife attack in Austria comes just days after 39 people were injured on Thursday when an Afghan asylum seeker rammed a car into a crowd of trade union demonstrators in Munich. 

Footage from the scene captured the moment the driver was arrested, as cops swarmed the vehicle and pinned him to the ground. 

Horror videos circulating online also saw several wounded victims lying in the streets being treated for injuries after the white car crashed through the crowd.

On social media, one witness, a German journalist, said the incident left people ‘crying and shaking’ on the ground.

‘A person was lying on the street and a young man was taken away by the police,’ Sandra Demmelhuber said.

‘People were sitting on the ground, crying and shaking. Details still unclear,’ the reporter added.

On Saturday, police confirmed a 37-year-old mother and her two-year-old daughter died from their injuries. 

Authorities have said they are treating the incident as a religiously motivated attack. 

The suspect has been named as Farhad N., a 24-year-old Afghan asylum seeker.

Gabriele Tilmann, the senior public prosecutor, said that Farhad N. had confessed during an interrogation to deliberately driving into the demonstration. 

On Thursday, several city employees stopped their work to demonstrate in a protest demanding an eight per cent increase, higher bonuses, and three additional days off.

The Verdi Union had called for the demonstration.

The car-ramming has brought security issues back into focus in campaigning for Germany ‘s federal election on February 23.

The attack also came hours before the arrival of international leaders in the southern German city for the annual Munich Security Conference. 

US Vice President JD Vance delivered an anti-immigration speech at the conference on Friday, in which he attacked European leaders for their approach to migration.

‘No voter on this continent went to the ballot box to open the floodgates to millions of unvetted immigrants,’ he said. 

Turning to the UK, he added: ‘You know what they did vote for in England? They voted for Brexit and, agree or disagree, they voted for it.

‘And more and more all over Europe, they’re voting for political leaders who promised to put an end to out-of-control migration.

‘Now, I happen to agree with a lot of these concerns, but you don’t have to agree with me.’

This is a breaking news story, more to follow.