Austrian Terror Attack Leaves Several Dead at Synagogue

While much of the world has been preoccupied with the imminent and infernal election taking place in the United States, terror has been on the upswing in Europe.

Possibly due to the strict travel restrictions brought on by the COVID pandemic, international terror attacks had seen a marked decrease in frequency in 2020.  In the US, there were still several instances of domestic terror, mostly coming from a political place, but foreign-borne terror has been holding steady at nearly nil.

In Europe, however, there have been several incidents in recent weeks, induing the latest coordinated attack on Monday in Austria.

Several gunmen fired shots at six locations in central Vienna starting near the central synagogue on Monday, killing at least one person and wounding others in what the interior minister said appeared to be a terrorist attack.

A large area of central Vienna was cordoned off. Police said a significant deployment was under way and that they had shot dead one of the suspects. They urged people to stay inside.

Interior Minister Karl Nehammer told Austrian broadcaster ORF that the attack was believed to have been carried out by several people and that all six locations were in the immediate vicinity of the street housing the central synagogue.

“At the moment I can confirm we believe this is an apparent terror attack,” he said.

“We believe there are several perpetrators. Unfortunately there are also several injured, probably also dead.”

The news comest just days after terror-related knife attacks in Paris and Nice, France.