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Austrian manhunt continues as more than one gunman believed involved

One thousand security forces are participating in the manhunt.

By David Isaac, World Israel News

A manhunt is ongoing as it’s still not clear if only one shooter was involved in Monday’s terror attack in Vienna which targeted citizens enjoying a final evening of socializing before a new corona lockdown was set to begin.

Austrian Interior Minister Karl Nehammer stated around midnight that authorities believed several gunmen were involved in the shooting. The attack reportedly took place in six locations.

One thousand security forces are participating in the manhunt.

One of the shooters was neutralized only minutes after the attack began, at 8:09 p.m. according to police. The attack started at 8:00 p.m., reports say.

The attacker, 20-year-old Kujtim Fejzulai, had Albanian roots and dual Austrian-North Macedonian citizenship. He was known to police. He had been arrested and imprisoned in 2019 for attempting to travel to Syria and join ISIS.

Fejzulai was released in December 2019 under juvenile law.

Austrian authorities deemed him incapable of planning an attack, says the editor of weekly Viennese paper Falter, Florian Kenk, according to The Daily Mail.

Four Austrian civilians died in the attack, two men and two women. A police officer was also wounded.

Seventeen were wounded in total. Seven of them remain in critical condition.

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Fejzulai began his attack in a busy section with bars and restaurants. It was on the same street as the city’s main synagogue, which was closed at the time.

Rabbi Schlomo Hofmeister saw the shooting below his window in his apartment near the synagogue.

“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.”

World leaders expressed their outrage at the attack and their support for Austrian authorities. Europe has been the site of many Islamist attacks, most recently in France, including one in which a woman was beheaded at a church in the Mediterranean coastal city of Nice.