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Vienna New Year alert ‘part of EU-wide Isis plot’

A security alert in Vienna on New Year’s Eve was part of a plot for simultaneous attacks across Europe by terror group Isis, Turkish media reported on Thursday.

Published: 7 January 2016 13:16 CET

Vienna New Year alert 'part of EU-wide Isis plot'

Austrian special forces police. File photo: APA

Turkish security officials raided the homes of two men in Turkey on December 30th, seizing a laptop containing details of a plan to attack Germany, Austria, Belgium, Britain, France and Turkey at the same time, Turkish officials told Hurriyet Daily News.

A group of 13 men planning to blow themselves up in suicide attacks left the northern Syrian province of Raqqa in accordance with the instructions found on the laptop.

The two men arrested in Turkey were the would-be suicide bombers tasked with the attack in that country.

Photos of potential targets around the capital city Ankara were found on the men's computers, including the courthouse, police HQ, a military school, mosques, shopping malls and two public squares.

Austria’s Interior Ministry said that it received a warning just before Christmas from a friendly intelligence service – which was not Turkish – that potential bomb or gun attacks could take place in areas with large crowds between Christmas and New Year.

Police surveillance of large crowds and main transport hubs on New Year’s Eve was increased, although celebrations continued mostly as normal.

In Germany, Munich’s two main train stations were evacuated on New Year’s Eve and large numbers of officers were deployed around the city in response to the terror threat.

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.

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