At least five killed in Vienna gun attack

VIENNA — Peering out a window at Vienna’s main synagogue compound on Monday evening, Rabbi Schlomo Hofmeister watched as a gunman opened fire on customers in the bars and restaurants of the city’s main nightlife district.

The shots rang out — dozens of volleys, perhaps hundreds, he isn't sure — sending people fleeing through the streets in panic or into bars to seek cover. The attacker followed them inside, he said. More gunfire followed.

The shooting left at least five dead, including an assailant, along with 22 people injured. It unfolded as the city's residents relished a few final hours of revelry before a new coronavirus lockdown.

It also came amid an uptick in extremist violence in Europe, with four people killed in knife attacks in France over the past month. Terrorist attacks have been extremely rare in Austria, however. The last major incident was in 1985, at the Vienna airport.

The suspect killed on Monday, 20-year-old Kujtim Fejzulai, was known to authorities and had been sentenced to 22 months in detention for trying to join the Islamic State, but had been released from prison early. It highlights a gap in the system, Interior Minister Karl Nehammer said. He had "fooled" the deradicalization program.

Armed with an assault rifle, machete and fake suicide belt, Fejzulai spread mayhem for nine minutes, until he was killed, officials said. In the initial chaos, police reported that there were multiple attackers, but security officials backpedaled on Tuesday, saying that the videos among tens of thousands sent in from the public that have been examined so far only indicate a single shooter.

"It was an attack motivated by hate — hate for our core values, hate for our way of life, hate for our democracy in which all people are equal in rights and dignity," Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said in a morning news conference. "But it's clear that we will not be intimidated by the terrorists," he said. "It is a battle between civilization and barbarism, and we will fight this battle with all determination."

A total of 18 house searches has been carried out, and 14 preliminary arrests made, authorities said.

The gunfire began around 8 p.m. on Monday, in an area of the city center known as Vienna's "Bermuda Triangle," with a reputation for bars where one can disappear during a night of heavy drinking.

Hofmeister said he could not be sure about the number of shooters, but that he saw at least one attacker who seemed "professional."

"He wasn't shooting around randomly. It was very targeted and coordinated," the rabbi said. Hofmeister called the police.

Hofmeister said there was no indication that the synagogue was a target. The building was closed at the time, and there was no activity inside, whereas the streets outside in the Innere Stadt neighborhood were busy.

"We are here in a popular nightlife district, the nightlife district of the city," he said. "It was a very warm evening, so a lot of people were out, and it was the evening before the lockdown."

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As midnight approached, the one suspect had been killed by law enforcement, but authorities said the situation remained active. Heavily armed officers swarmed the capital, blocking roads and searching vehicles. Police urged residents to stay inside. Medics set up a triage area to treat the wounded.

According to an initial law enforcement assessment, the shooting took place at six locations. After gunfire began near the synagogue, shots were also reported on the city's Morzinplatz, Salzgries, Feishmarkt, Bauermarkt and Graben streets, said Harald Sörös, a spokesman for the Interior Ministry. Investigators were still making assessments based on witness statements, the ministry said.

As the shooter — or shooters — roamed the streets, an elderly man, an elderly woman, a young passerby and a waitress were killed "in cold blood," Kurz said. Among those who were injured was a police officer who stepped between civilians and a gunman, he said. That officer was in stable condition on Tuesday, following surgery.

Sara, a 20-year-old Albanian who moved to Vienna a year ago, was drinking coffee nearby. She heard shots but did not think it was a "big deal," she said. Sara said she was too scared to have her last name published, with attackers still potentially on the loose.

"We thought it was maybe a stupid guy shooting at someone or a fight on the street," she said.

Then people began running. They moved to another bar. "A guy came to us running and told us it was a terrorist attack," she said. "And then we were scared. We saw the panic. We saw a girl, she was running, she was injured. She was crying."

Sara lives in an apartment in the area and said she barely slept. Before Monday night, she had thought Vienna was the "safest city in the world," she said. "We never expected this to happen. I don't know how we are going back to our normal lives after this."

Residents of Vienna were asked to stay home from work and school if possible on Tuesday, as it was unclear whether an attacker remained at large.

Despite some of Europe's most lax gun ownership laws, mass shootings are rare in Austria. Still, the initial reports that a synagogue may have been attacked brought back memories of 1981, when Palestinian militants armed with automatic weapons and grenades attacked the main synagogue during a bar mitzvah service and killed two people.

President Donald Trump called Monday's assault "yet another vile act of terrorism in Europe."

"These evil attacks against innocent people must stop. The U.S. stands with Austria, France, and all of Europe in the fight against terrorists, including radical Islamic terrorists," he posted on Twitter.

Other world leaders expressed condolences. "Islamist terror is our common enemy," German Chancellor Angela Merkel said in a statement. In France, three knife attacks have been carried out within a month after the French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo republished cartoons depicting the prophet Muhammad.

Two people were stabbed outside the publication's former offices in late September, while two weeks ago a middle school teacher was beheaded. Last week, three people were killed in a church in Nice, in what French President Emmanuel Macron described as "Islamist terror."

"We, the French, share the shock and sadness of the Austrians after an attack in Vienna," he tweeted. "It is a friendly country that is under attack. This is our Europe. Our enemies need to know who they are dealing with. We won't give in to anything."

It was a sentiment shared by Barbara Lovett, a 52-year-old opera singer manager who was an hour into watching a three-hour performance at the city's opera house when the shooting started a half-mile away. It was only when she turned to her phone at 10 p.m. when the performance ended that she realized what was happening. Police held the audience in the building.

Members of the orchestra began to play as they waited to be allowed to go home. "This is Vienna," Lovett said, famed for its opera and for producing classical composers such as Mozart, Strauss and Schubert. "We have to play music. That's what we know."

Morris reported from Berlin. The Washington Post’s Luisa Beck contributed from Berlin.