Spate Of Anti-Christian Incidents in Austria Following Attack on French Cathedral
(Photo: CNA)
Exchanges of gunfire Monday night between police and unknown assailants in Vienna come after several days of apparently Islamist attacks and demonstrations against Catholics and Catholic churches in Austria.
Monday night’s gunfire took place in close proximity to the Stadttempel, Vienna’s main synagogue, although police have not said whether the synagogue was the target of an attempted terrorist attack.
Police say that shooting began at 8:00 pm, and was perpetrated by several attackers with rifles. There six different crime scenes, police say, and at least one person has been killed. A police officer has been severely injured, and one perpetrator was killed by police.
Cardinal Christoph Schonborn of Vienna tweeted on Monday his prayers for the city and its emergency responders, and that “there will be no further bloodshed.”
Several anti-Christian incidents have caused a stir in Austria, after last week’s terrorist attack by a man shouting Islamist phrases at a cathedral in France.
A Catholic religious sister was attacked on a bus, police have arrested a 19-year-old Afghan, according to police in the Austrian state of Styria.
The nun, 76, was attacked on Saturday afternoon on a bus in the Austrian city of Graz. The perpetrator hit the sister in the face and then fled.
Police officers seized video material from the bus, after which the State Office for the Protection of the Constitution and Counter Terrorism arrested the Afghan-born teenager. The suspect, already known to the police for drug offences and assault, has confessed to the crime; his motive is still unclear, police say.
Several anti-Christian incidents have caused a stir in Austria, after last week’s terrorist attack by a man shouting Islamist phrases at a cathedral in France.
Between 30 and 50 young people also attacked a church in Vienna-Favoriten on October 29. According to several media reports, the perpetrators were a group of young Turks. The attackers stormed into the parish church of St Anton in Favoriten, shouted “Allahu Akbar,” and kicking pews and other furnishing in the church.
The Archdiocese of Vienna condemned the attack and called for “quick clarification” and “consequences.”
The Vienna State Office for the Protection of the Constitution and Combating Terrorism was given video material by the church’s deputy pastor, which is currently being evaluated.
Another Afghan was arrested over the weekend while shouting “Islamic slogans” in St Stephen’s Cathedral, Vienna police confirmed to CNA Deutsch, CNA’s German language news partner.
Churches in Vienna are now being monitored more closely as part of the patrol service, the police told CNA Deutsch.
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