First France, Now Austria : Next in Line?
"We heard noises that sounded like firecrackers. We heard about 20 to 30 and we thought that to be actually gunfire. We saw the ambulances... lining up. There were victims. Sadly, we also saw a body lying down the street next to us."Witness Chris Zhao, Vienna"We are experiencing difficult hours in our republic. Our police will act decisively against the perpetrators of this hideous terrorist attack. We will never allow ourselves to be intimidated by terrorism.""[The attackers] were very well equipped with automatic weapons [and had] prepared professionally.""We really can’t say anything about the background yet .Of course an antisemitic background cannot be ruled out.""One of the perpetrators was neutralized, but several perpetrators appear to still be on the loose. They seem to also, as far as we know, be very well equipped with automatic weapons. So they were very well prepared. It's definitely a terror attack."Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz"We, the French people share the shock and grief of the Austrian people, struck this evening by an attack in the heart of their capital, Vienna. After France, a friend of ours is attacked. This is our Europe. Our enemies must know who they are dealing with.""[Our]thoughts are with the people of Austria - we stand united with you against terror."French President Emmanuel Macron
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| Police block a street near Schwedenplatz Square, after exchanges of gunfire in Vienna, Austria,, Nov. 2, 2020. Photo: Reuters / Leonhard Foeger. |
Why Vienna? No doubt details and explanations will ensue. For the present, however, the carnage is complete and Austria has been violently inducted into the chamber of horrors represented by Islamist psychopathy. A professionally coordinated series of simultaneous attacks, some six disparate attacks, with the attackers armed with professional weapons of a type not available in Austria. Leaving the question, was some foreign agency involved supplying the attackers with advanced, deadly weaponry, an agency that also went to great lengths to train and coordinate the group of attackers?
France, next door to Austria, is on high alert for ongoing attacks. Austria had no reason to place its emergency services on alert, like most other European nations it stated no overt support for France at its hour of need, facing off against Islamofascists, both internal and external, subjecting its citizens and its institutions to incidents of bloody atrocities. Was the purpose to demonstrate that Islamist jihadis avenging insults to their prophet could strike anywhere at any time? That no non-Muslim country was immune?
Was it easier to send Austria into shock, unprepared for such an attack, than France, prepared and already beyond shock? Since the attackers are now in custody answers may or may not be forthcoming. One person was killed in the attack, another who was wounded later died, and one of the attackers was also killed. While fifteen people were wounded, among them a police officer, and seven of the fifteen were seriously wounded. It took many hours before the standoff was resolved, the attackers taken into custody, the city able to heave a sigh of relief through its shock that the body count hadn't been steeper.
One of the attackers was said to be still at large, leading Interior Minister Karl Nehammer to warn residents not to enter the
center of the city, adding that border checks were being reinforced. Schools would be closed on Tuesday, the minister informed the public. "We have brought several special forces units together that are now
searching for the presumed terrorists. I am therefore not limiting it to
an area of Vienna, because these are mobile perpetrators."
"Upon hearing shots, we looked down [from] the windows [from the synagogue compound] and saw the gunmen shooting at the guests of the various bars and pubs.""The gunmen were running around and shooting at least 100 rounds or even more in front of our building."Rabbi Schlomo Hofmeister, Seitenstettengasse Synagogue
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| Police sealed off streets near Schwedenplatz in Vienna Reuters |
According to police accounts, several shots were fired shortly after 8 p.m.
local time on a street in the city centre and that six
shooting locations were identified. Unverified footage posted on social media showed
gunmen walking through the streets, apparently shooting at random
and wounding several people. People reported hearing shouts of 'Allahu Akbar!' accompanying the shooting.
Videos circulating quickly on social media showed a gunman sprinting down a cobblestone
street while shooting and shouting. One video featured a man gunning down a person
outside what seemed to be a bar on the street housing the synagogue.
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Two Palestinians attacking the same Viennese synagogue killed two people and injured another 18 people in 1981, while in 19845, three civilians were killed by a Palestinian terrorist group in an airport attack.
Austria now has reason to follow France's suit in ramping up security. The attacks in Paris and Nice, and President Macron's clamp-down on extremist Islamofascist groups in France has earned him condemnation from Turkey, Pakistan, Malaysia and the Palestinian Authority, among others, condemning him for alienating Muslims, insulting Islam and in his proactive and preventive measures, according to his Muslim critics, creating the aura for more and greater violence to be visited upon France and its citizens.
The tens of thousands of soldiers now deployed in protection of sensitive sites such as places of worship and schools, will now see their counterpart taking place in Austria. And should Islamofascists, spurred on and incited by Friday-night mosque prayers and others like Recep Tayyip Erdogan to ever greater violent excesses take place, those European countries now commiserating with Austria who had withheld their support for France, may see their own borders breached and atrocities committed within them.
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| A number of people have been taken to hospital, including some with serious injuries Reuters |
Labels: Austria, France, Islamist Terrorism, Violent Attacks
posted by Pieface @ Tuesday, November 03, 2020
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