‘Terrorism has now reached Austria’: Disbelief and shock as Vienna left reeling from deadly terror attack

Attack on eve of second national lockdown ended with five dead – including gunman – and at least 22 wounded. Stephanie Liechtenstein reports from Vienna

Sebastian Kurz places a candle at a crime scene as he pays his respects to the victims (AFP via Getty Images)

An eerie silence hung over Vienna on Tuesday with streets deserted and shops in the city centre closed on the first day of the national lockdown, as police told the public to stay at home while they searched for other attackers.

Austria had been spared the kind of terrorist attacks that have struck other European capitals in recent years, including Paris, London, Berlin and Brussels, with Vienna priding itself on its tolerance and unity.  

Community rabbi Schlomo Hofmeister, a witness to Monday’s attack, was at the police cordon around the synagogue.

“I am still in a state of shock. The events last night were not in any way expected to happen in a city like Vienna, a very tolerant place,” he said.

“I heard several gunshots [and at] first [I] thought that this must be fireworks. I then looked outside my window and saw the attacker with a rifle running around and shooting people who were sitting outside in bars.”

Hofmeister said that some of the victims he saw were not immediately “jumping from their seats”, which made him think that they did not know the gravity of the situation.

Daniel Kapp, who owns a PR agency located just a few blocks from where the shooting began, was still in his office when he suddenly heard several gunshots.

“I looked out of my office window and could not believe my eyes when I saw heavily armed members of the Austrian special police forces in full combat gear shouting at people to clear the streets and seek shelter,” he told the Independent. “Many of the people in the bar just below my office did not move and my impression was that they simply did not grasp immediately the danger of the situation.”

It had been an unusually warm evening for the beginning of November and many were outside in bars and restaurants, enjoying one last evening out before the start of a second lockdown.

But this relaxed atmosphere ended abruptly when a heavily armed assailant opened fire and began shooting randomly at people in the city centre, killing four and wounding at least 22 others. The attack started outside the main synagogue at around 8pm local time before continuing on to several other locations in Vienna’s historic first district.

"We experienced an attack yesterday evening from at least one Islamist terrorist, a situation that we have not had to live through in Austria for decades,” Austrian Interior Minister Karl Nehammer told a morning news conference on Tuesday.

The assassin, who was wearing a fake explosive belt, was shot dead by police. He was later identified as 20-year-old Kujtim Fejzulai, a dual citizen from Austria and North Macedonia. Swat teams used explosives to enter and search his apartment on Tuesday.

Police carried out a series of raids on Tuesday and made 14 arrests. A manhunt was launched but authorities said later in the day they believed the attacker was acting alone.

Veronika Binder, who was visiting a close friend who lives just a few minutes from where the gunman opened fire, told the Independent that the events of this evening had been “the most horrible thing” she has ever experienced.

“It was an atmosphere that I only knew from films. I was very afraid.” She said that she arrived at her friend’s flat just a few minutes after 8pm, when she heard several loud bangs. “My first thought was that this must be fireworks. As Austrians, we simply don’t think of terrorism.”

Binder said that when she looked outside the window of her friend’s apartment she saw armed police that stopped and searched everyone in the street, asking them to raise their hands. It was not until the early morning hours that she was finally able to leave the city centre to return home.

Max Kothbauer was also enjoying a final evening out at the opera when he read news reports about the attack. The performance, he says, nevertheless continued until the end. After the applause, Bogdan Roščić, the director of the Vienna state opera, came out on the stage and asked everyone to stay inside the opera house.

“My impression was that people all remained very calm,” Kothbauer told the Independent. “After almost two hours heavily armed police arrived at the opera in a surreal scene and escorted people to the nearby underground station so that they could return home safely.”

But as night now falls on the city, the events of the past 24 hours will still take time to be processed.

David Yosopov, a young member of the Viennese Jewish community, still seemed to be in disbelief. He had been on Singerstrasse when the attack occurred, not far from the synagogue, and was prevented from heading home for several hours while police secured the area.

“It seems that terrorism has now reached Austria,” he said, adding that, until now, he had always felt safe.