Austria on Friday admitted “intolerable mistakes” in the handling of intelligence on the jihadist who killed four people in Vienna on Monday, saying it could have considered him a greater threat and monitored him more closely.
The head of the main domestic intelligence agency for the city of Vienna, the Vienna Provincial Office for the Protection of the Constitution and Counter-Terrorism (LVT), was stepping down temporarily while an investigation was carried out, Interior Minister Karl Nehammer told a news conference.
“Obvious and from our point of view intolerable mistakes were made,” Nehammer said.
Austria had already admitted fumbling intelligence from Slovakia that the 20-year-old gunman, who was shot dead by police during his rampage in the centre of the capital, had attempted to buy ammunition there.
“People in Germany who were being monitored by German intelligence stayed in Austria in the summer and also met the attacker here,” Vienna police chief Gerhard Puerstl said.
“These facts together with the findings that emerged from the information from Slovakia could have led to a different outcome regarding the assessment of the threat posed by the perpetrator,” he added.
Nehammer said all such threat assessments would be reviewed to ensure the right monitoring measures were in place.
Austria also ordered the closure of a mosques and a prayer room in Vienna that the attacker visited frequently and which had contributed to his radicalisation, Integration Minister Susanne Raab said.
Austria, a country of 8.9 million people, has roughly 600,000 Muslim inhabitants, most of whom are Turkish or have families of Turkish origin.
Source: REUTERS
