Europe's news in English

COPY LINK

TERRORISM

Ski hotel ‘receives bomb threat’

The Kronen Zeitung newspaper is reporting that a luxury ski hotel in western Austria is under police protection after it received a threatening email from self-proclaimed “Caucasus terrorists” who said they planned a bomb attack as retaliation against the recent arrests of 14 suspected jihadists.

Published: 3 December 2014 11:33 CET

Ski hotel 'receives bomb threat'

Photo: APA

The four star hotel was reportedly evacuated and searched with sniffer dogs, and is now under police guard.

Police raids which took place in Vienna, Graz and Linz on Friday apparently triggered the threat. They followed a two-year investigation into several suspects thought to be recruiting young people to fight in Syria.

Mirsad O., a Vienna-based Bosnian-Serb preacher is the alleged ringleader and is believed to be connected to the leadership of the terrorist group Isis.

An insider quoted by the Kronen Zeitung said that Austrian security forces are on high alert as they fear possible reprisal attacks, especially in the run-up to Christmas.

Mirsad O. and seven other suspects will be transferred to Graz-Jakomini prison in the next few days. The remaining suspects have all been released due to a lack of evidence, but they are still being investigated and may be charged at a later date.

Thirteen people were arrested in the dawn raids on Friday – and one additional person was arrested later in the day. Numerous homes, mosques and vehicles were searched and 30 weapons including knives, knuckledusters and pistols were reportedly seized.

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.

Become a Member to leave a comment.

What is the risk of new terror attacks in Austria?

With responsibility for the Moscow attack being taken by the Islamist terror organisation ISIS-K, national intelligence services are reevaluating the threat posed to targets within their borders.

‘No concrete threat’

Austrian officials have been quick to give their appraisal of the situation.

“We currently have the Islamist scene under control,” stressed Omar Haijawi-Pirchner, head of the Directorate of State Security & Intelligence (DSN) – the governmental agency responsible for combatting internal threats – in an interview with the Ö1 Morgenjournal radio programme on Tuesday.

He continued: “The terrorist attacks in Moscow, for example, definitely increase the risk. But at the moment, we do not see any concrete threat of an attack in Austria,”

Other experts and officials have warned that while there are no concrete threats, Austrians should not be complacent.

‘Situation is still valid’

Interior Minister Gerhard Karner announced tighter security at church festivals during the Easter period, in the days after the attack, and stressed that the high terror alert level introduced after the October 7 Hamas attacks was still in place.

“This increased risk situation is still valid,” noted Karner.

READ MORE: What does Austria’s raised terror alert mean for the public?

Meanwhile, terror researcher Peter Neumann of King’s College London told ORF’s ‘ZiB 2’ news broadcast on Monday that Austria remains a potential target due to its Central Asian migrant population.

Neumann noted that countries at most risk are those “in which Tajik and Central Asian diasporas exist and where ISIS-K finds it relatively easy to identify and recruit people”.

He continued, identifying both Austria and Germany as “countries in which the ISPK is particularly active and which are particularly at risk from terrorist attacks”.

New threats

Austria has not been spared from attacks from homegrown terrorists.

On November 2nd 2020, amid Coronavirus lockdowns, Austrian-born Kujtim Fejzulai shot and killed four, injuring twenty-three others during a shooting spree across Vienna. He was ultimately shot dead by police.

Fejzulai was already under surveillance by federal authorities for his beliefs and had been released from prison on parole less than a year before.

Url copied to clipboard!