A few days ago, tenants of a Viennese apartment building in the district of Leopoldstadt noticed threats in their stairwell. They are calling for murder (“Death to Christians”) containing spelling mistakes and glorifying the terrorist attack on the Schwedenplatz square. It is written: “The house will soon belong to us and then the whole world”. The indigestible sentence is also reminiscent of Nazi diction. Supplemented with: “Allah” may the 20-year-old assassin, who murdered four people on November the 2nd, be “merciful”. Concerned neighbours thereupon alerted the Vienna police and filed a complaint. So far it is still unclear who is responsible for the disturbing graffiti. The LVT ( State Office for the Protection of the Constitution and Counter-Terrorism) has already started investigations in this regard.
These are also intended to clarify whether the slogans originate from IS sympathizers or whether Muslims are being deliberately denigrated in the building in Leopoldstadt. “The attack of November the 2nd was a dramatic act of terrorism in Austria and never before seen in its dimension”, said Interior Minister Karl Nehammer at a press conference on Thursday. On that occasion he also shared the latest findings on the terror investigations: It could not be excluded that the perpetrator deliberately wanted to search for victims in churches in order to execute them. Therefore, he said, there would immediately be increased protection for churches.
“We are in a delicate phase”, said the Minister of the Interior and warned of possible copycat offenders, which is why there will be an increased presence of security forces at churches and other places of religious worship from now on, announced the Director General for Public Security, Franz Ruf. In addition, it would be ensured that the facilities would be guarded in a plain and uniformed, visible and concealed manner. In addition, there are new Cobra rapid reaction forces, which ” will locate possible perpetrators within the shortest possible time, lock them up and finally end the situation of amok or terror”, Brigadier Hannes Gulnbrein continued.