Austria arrested teenager over foiled plot to attack Vienna station

PHOTO CAPTION: Illustrative photo via @tacticalporn on X/Twitter

By Francois Murphy

VIENNA (Reuters) -Austria arrested a 14-year-old on February 10 on suspicion of planning a militant attack on a Vienna train station, the Interior Ministry said on Wednesday, calling the suspect an Islamic State supporter who became radicalised online.

The announcement follows a knife attack in the southern town of Villach on Saturday, in which a 23-year-old Syrian refugee is suspected of having killed a teenager and wounded five people. That man was rapidly radicalised after watching Islamist videos on TikTok, Austrian authorities have said.

"Domestic intelligence and the police have prevented a terrorist attack in Vienna," the ministry said in a statement. "The suspect is 14 years old, an Austrian citizen with Turkish roots, and he became radicalised on the internet." 

The ministry said he had been planning an attack on the Westbahnhof station, a striking mid-20th century building that is the departure point for lines including a private train company's service to cities such as Salzburg and Innsbruck.

A search of the suspect's home found numerous Islamist books as well as two knives, handwritten instructions for producing explosives to be used as a detonator for a bomb, as well as material including aluminium pipes that were intended to be used for bomb-making, the ministry said.

"The Directorate for State Security and Intelligence (DSN)  received information that an initially unknown supporter of a terrorist organization was spreading stories and videos with Islamist ideas on several TikTok profiles," the ministry said, describing how the investigation started.

"After an intensive investigation the DSN was able to establish the identity of the IS supporter," it said, without naming him.    

 (Reporting by Francois MurphyEditing by Bernadette Baum, William Maclean)