Islamists planned car rampage into the crowd at Vienna’s Pride parade

The gruesome plans of three young Islamists to kill dozens of young women and men at the Pride parade in Vienna are now known: Chats show that the terrorists and their leader (15) planned a car rampage into the crowd on June 17 – and also wanted to murder people by stabbing them.

He is said to have stated that he wanted to run over participants at the event with a car or attack them with knives, according to a joint investigation by the news programme Puls 24, and the newspaper Der Standard and the Austrian Press Agency APA. This is the first concrete indication of a planned attack in the investigations against the 15-year-old Viennese and the 18- and 20-year-old brothers from St. Pölten. So far, IS propaganda has been found on the mobile phones of the three, the youngest is also said to have made it himself, founded a “terror channel” and had several bomb-making instructions.

The suspected Islamist living abroad, whose mobile phone has now revealed further details, is said to have been in contact with the St. Pölten brothers via various social media platforms. In spring 2023, communication with the foreign suspected jihadist about a planned attack in Vienna, specifically at a “gay parade”, is said to have taken place.

The 18-year-old brother chatted with at least two suspected IS supporters outside Austria, discussing plans to attack the Vienna Pride Parade and holding out the prospect of acquiring an AK-47 automatic rifle and a large knife for a terrorist attack in the Czech Republic. His older brother is said to have given him “at least psychological support”.

A report by the deradicalisation centre “Derad” from mid-October states that the brothers were “trying to do everything right”. In the case of the younger of the two, “a genuine radicalisation in the sense of solidified extremist views or patterns of behaviour could not be established on the basis of previous conversations”.

But the investigators also found a number of things on the mobile phone of the young man, who was only 14 years old at the time of the Vienna Pride parade, that pointed to his radicalisation. He is said to have created and edited propaganda material promoting terrorism, used a chat group to fundraise for weapons purchases for the Islamic State of Khorasan Province (ISKP) and stated that he wanted to join the ISKP in Afghanistan as soon as he reached the age of majority.

Kripo deckt auf: So wollten Islamisten bei Wiens Pride-Parade morden | Exxpress