Austria: Somali asylum seeker sets fire to apartment building and attacks fleeing residents with a knife

In Salzburg’s Liefering district, police officers stopped a dangerous Somali man by shooting him after the alleged firebug first started a fire and then attacked people in the burning house and also the police officers with a knife. Several people, including the alleged perpetrator, were injured.

In Salzburg, shortly after 4 a.m., the professional fire brigade was alerted to a room fire in the street Aribonenstraße after a fire broke out on the third floor of a residential building. A large fire brigade was able to extinguish the fire and evacuate a total of 30 residents. Seven people had to be rescued using a turntable ladder. The evacuees were temporarily accommodated in a nearby hotel and were cared for by the Salzburg Red Cross. Three people had to be taken to Salzburg General Hospital, two of whom suffered smoke poisoning, “Salzburg 24” reported.

According to the fire brigade, the fire led to heavy smoke development, and the flat in which the fire broke out was completely destroyed. The cause of the fire was not yet known at the time of the extinguishing work, but in the course of initial police investigations, the suspicion of arson quickly arose – not least because a knife crime took place at exactly the same time.

While the fire brigade was being called to the scene of the fire, the police got more calls saying that a person with a knife had run out of the very same house where the fire was burning, threatening residents and passers-by. The suspect also attacked a person with the knife for no apparent reason, but without injuring him. The perpetrator then fled the scene.

During the immediate search, a police patrol stopped the suspect in the area of the street Linke Glanzeile. However, the perpetrator did not follow the police instructions and attacked the police officers with a knife, according to a police statement. In order to stop the attack, the police officers fired three shots, according to current information. The perpetrator was injured to an unspecified extent in the area of the thigh. After initial treatment, he was temporarily arrested and taken to Salzburg University Hospital.

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