: An Afghan man has been detained in connection with knife attacks in Vienna in which four people were seriously injured, Austrian police have said.
The 23-year-old was detained shortly after the stabbing of a 20-year-old man, also from Afghanistan, on Wednesday night, police spokesman Patrick Maierhofer told the Associated Press.
Mr Maierhofer said police are still investigating whether the suspect is also responsible for the stabbing of an Austrian family about an hour earlier, also in the heart of the Austria capital.
All three family members - a 67-year-old man, a 56-year-old woman and their 17-year-old daughter - as well as the 20-year-old Afghan victim suffered life-threatening injuries and were taken to hospital.
Mr Maierhofer said the attack did not appear to be terror-related, but it was too early to say anything about the assailant's motive.
"We are still investigating and cannot say what motivated him," said the officer.
"We cannot even say, at this point, if the detained suspect attacked all four persons or if a second suspect was involved who is still on the run."
Local Austrian media reported on Thursday that police had increased their presence in central Vienna.
: Austrian media report that several people have been injured in a knife attack on the streets of Vienna.
News website heute.at reports that the attack happened this evening, when a man with a knife randomly attacked pedestrians near the capital’s famous Prater park.
Citing a police spokesman, the Austria Press Agency reports that three people were seriously injured and that police are still searching for the attacker.
According to the police, the victims are one man and two women between the ages of 40 and 50 years.
HEUTE: Confirmed photos of scene where suspect indiscriminately stabbed several pedestrians in Vienna, Austria pic.twitter.com/UW0uLg4nAT
— Josh Caplan (@joshdcaplan) March 7, 2018
A motive for the attack wasn’t immediately known.
According to reports subways at and around the Nestroyplatz have been redirected.
More as we get it ...
- AP