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Reuters
17-02-2025
- Reuters
Austrian knife attack suspect was radicalised on TikTok, officials say
Summary Companies Suspected Islamist attacker is 23-year-old Syrian refugee Has admitted carrying out attack, prosecutors' office says Was exposed to IS ideology by watching social media videos Spent four days in German custody in 2024, ministry says VIENNA, Feb 17 (Reuters) - The 23-year-old Syrian refugee believed to have killed a teenager and injured five other people in a weekend stabbing rampage in the Austrian town of Villach became radicalised quickly by using TikTok, officials said on Monday. The suspect, identified as Ahmad G., had the flag of the Islamic State militant group in his apartment but had not previously attracted Austrian authorities' attention. The case highlights the challenge of preventing so-called lone wolf attacks, when an attacker acts alone without outside help. His online radicalisation draws further attention to social media platforms like TikTok that can offer users a large amount of content on subjects of interest, which some experts say can accelerate their immersion in them. "He radicalised himself within three months," a spokesman for prosecutors in the nearby city of Klagenfurt, where the investigation is being handled, told Reuters. "Not through any other person, personal contact either online or in person. Evidently, he really just consumed videos and decided to commit this act. There was no other person who said 'Do it!'" he said. "He himself confirms it and says he watched videos and then decided he wanted to join IS." TikTok, in a 2022 post on its website, opens new tab, said it was committed to finding solutions and working with "civil society on combating violent extremism". The attack came just days after a 24-year-old Afghan drove into a crowd in Munich in neighbouring Germany, killing two people and injuring dozens. Munich lead prosecutor Gabriele Tilmann said there appeared to be an Islamist motivation. Police said the Villach suspect used a flip knife for the attack and recorded himself swearing allegiance to Islamic State, adding that his aim was to be shot dead by police. Instead, he was arrested within minutes after another Syrian helped to stop him. A picture of the suspect was widely circulated, showing him sitting in the street appearing to smile as a police officer faced him just moments after the attack. The suspect is believed to have arrived in Austria in 2019, the prosecutors' office spokesman said, and wanted to travel on to Germany with fake identification so that German authorities would not turn him away as an asylum applicant for having already been in a safe third country, Austria. A spokesman for Austria's Interior Ministry said the suspect spent four days in custody in Germany in May last year for being unable to pay a fine for falsifying a document, but did not say what kind of document it was.
Al Jazeera
15-02-2025
- Al Jazeera
Mother, daughter die after being injured in Munich car ramming
A two-year-old girl and her mother have died from injuries suffered in a car-ramming attack earlier this week in the German city of Munich that left 37 others injured. 'Unfortunately, we have to confirm the deaths today of the two-year-old child and her 37-year-old mother,' police spokesman Ludwig Waldinger told the AFP news agency. An Afghan man was arrested on suspicion of deliberately driving a car into a trade union demonstration on Thursday. According to prosecutor Gabriele Tilmann, the 24-year-old Afghan national admitted to having deliberately driven a white Mini Cooper into a labour union demonstration in the Bavarian capital on Thursday. Tilmann said the motive remained unclear, and there was no evidence to suggest the suspect was affiliated with any 'Islamist' or 'terrorist' organisations. She added that there was no indication of any accomplices. The man was in Germany legally and had no previous convictions.
NBC News
15-02-2025
- NBC News
Mother and 2-year-old daughter die days after Munich ramming attack, police say
A 37-year-old woman and her 2-year-old daughter died from their injuries two days after a car intentionally plowed into a crowd in Munich, German police said. A police spokesman said the mother and daughter died Saturday afternoon. At least 37 people were injured in the attack on Thursday. Their names have not been released. The attack happened the day before a major security conference featuring world and defense leaders was set to begin. Authorities said the attack was intentional and is being treated as Islamic extremism. The suspect, a 24-year-old Afghan national who has not been identified, said in a police interview that he purposely drove into the crowd, Gabriele Tilmann, a senior public prosecutor, said at a news conference. The suspect's reason 'could be summarized as a religious reason,' Tilmann said. 'I can't say more about it, but what he said would lead us to conclude that it was a religious motive,' she said. 'We don't want to jump to any conclusions, but given what has happened, we would assume this was an Islamic extremist attack,' she continued, adding that the suspect prayed after his arrest. He was charged with 36 counts of attempted murder, as well as grievous bodily harm and reckless driving.
Chicago Tribune
14-02-2025
- Chicago Tribune
Prosecutors see an Islamic extremist motive in the Munich car-ramming attack
MUNICH — The suspect in the car-ramming attack in Munich that left more than 30 people injured appears to have had an Islamic extremist motive, but there's no evidence that he was involved with any radical network, authorities said Friday. The 24-year-old Afghan, who arrived in Germany as an asylum-seeker in 2016 and lived in Munich, was arrested after driving his Mini Cooper into the back of a labor union demonstration in the Bavarian city on Thursday. Police officers pulled him out of the car after firing a shot at the vehicle, which didn't hit him, and arrested him. It was the fifth in a series of attacks involving immigrants over the past nine months that have pushed migration to the forefront of the campaign for Germany's Feb. 23 election. Prosecutor Gabriele Tilmann said that the suspect said 'Allahu Akbar,' or 'God is great,' to police and then prayed after his arrest — which prompted a department that investigates extremism and terror to take on the case immediately. In questioning, he admitted deliberately driving into the demonstration and 'gave an explanation that I would summarize as religious motivation,' Tilmann said. She didn't give details, but added: 'According to all we know at the moment, I would venture to speak of an Islamist motivation.' However, there were no indications the suspect was in any Islamic extremist organization, she added. He posted content with religious references — such as 'Allah, protect us always' — on social media, where he described himself as a bodybuilder and fitness model, Tilmann said. The deputy head of Bavaria's state criminal police office, Guido Limmer, said investigators found a chat, apparently with relatives, in which the suspect wrote 'perhaps I won't be there anymore tomorrow,' but so far they have found nothing that points to concrete preparations for the attack or anyone else being involved. The man had no previous convictions and had a valid residence permit, although his asylum application had been rejected. He had jobs, including as a store detective. Tilmann said there was no indication of mental illness. Police said that they know of 36 people who were injured in the attack, two of them very seriously and eight seriously. Tilmann said the suspect is under investigation on 36 counts of attempted murder as well as bodily harm and dangerous interference with road traffic. Well-wishers laid flowers and lit candles near the site of the attack. 'I'm speechless,' said Anna Zagkoti, 37. 'We had too many other cases like this in other German cities. For me its really sad and it can't continue. Politicians have to do something and we as society as well. We have to stand together and fight it.' German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier laid a flower at the scene Friday morning. He condemned 'the brutality of this act' and said that it 'leaves us stunned.' The attack happened a day before the opening of the Munich Security Conference, an annual gathering of international foreign and security policy officials that is accompanied by heavy security. U.S. Vice President JD Vance offered his condolences at the start of a bilateral meeting with Steinmeier on the sidelines of the event. ' We wish the government the best as you recover and try to care for the victims and families,' he said.
Yahoo
14-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Munich car-ramming that injured 36 investigated as 'Islamic extremism'
The car-ramming that injured at least 36 people in Munich, Germany, on Thursday ahead of a major security conference featuring world leaders and defense leaders, was an intentional attack and is being treated as Islamic extremism, authorities said Friday. Gabriele Tilmann, a senior public prosecutor, told a news conference in the city that the unidentified suspect admitted in a police interview that he drove into the crowd purposefully. "The reason that he gave could be summarized as a religious reason. I can't say more about it, but what he said would lead us to conclude that it was a religious motive," she said. "We don't want to jump to any conclusions, but given what has happened we would assume this was an Islamic extremist attack," she added. After his arrested on Thursday the suspect prayed, she said. The suspect, a 24-year-old Afghan national, was arrested on suspicion of 36 counts of attempted murder, as well as grievous bodily harm and reckless driving. He drove a white Mini into a crowd of 1,500 people marching through central Munich, as part of a trade union demonstration. This was not linked to the security conference, police said. The security conference is a high-profile annual meeting that discusses geopolitical matters. This year the summit is dominated by the course of the ongoing war in Ukraine. Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio are speaking at the event. Tilmann also said that there is no evidence so far that the suspect is part of any Islamist organization or was working with any accomplices. Detectives had only just started investigating digital evidence from his phone and various social media accounts, where he posted about his Islamic faith and fitness regime. Police have searched his apartment but didn't find any evidence linked to the attack. The suspect was an asylum-seeker with legal right to remain in Germany, who lives in Munich and came to the country in 2016 as an unaccompanied minor, police said. He was known to authorities 'from investigations in which he was a witness due to his previous work' as a store detective, Munich police said in a statement Thursday. He has no previous convictions. Those injured range in age from 2 to 60 years old and were all taking part in the trade union march. At least eight people were seriously injured, including a child, Christian Huber, deputy chief of police, told the news conference. The number of injuries is not exhaustive, police said, as there might be more who have sought health care privately. Huber told the news conference that officers who were accompanying the march opened fire at the vehicle but did not hit the driver nor an unidentified passenger. There will now be an investigation into the use of firearms, a standard procedural response. This article was originally published on
