LAST UPDATE | 15 Feb 2025

A 14-YEAR-OLD boy has died and four other people were injured in a knife attack in southern Austria, police said, adding they have arrested a 23-year-old Syrian asylum seeker.

“A man randomly attacked passers-by with a knife,” police spokesman Rainer Dionisio told news agency AFP of the incident in the city of Villach. “One victim, a 14-year-old boy, died.”

Two other men suffered serious injuries, while another two men were lightly injured, Dionisio added.

The incident happened on Saturday just before 4pm local time in the centre of the city, the capital of Carinthia province.

A food delivery rider saw the attack and rammed his vehicle into the attacker, who was lightly injured and was arrested “right after the attack”, according to Dionisio.

The man under arrest is a Syrian asylum seeker with a valid residence permit and without a criminal record according to preliminary information, he added.

The youngest victim was the 14-year-old, while the oldest is 32 years old, he said.

The attack comes just two days after a car-ramming attack in the city of Munich in neighbouring Germany.

A two-year-old girl and her mother died earlier today from injuries suffered in that attack which left 37 others injured.

A 24-year-old Afghan asylum seeker was arrested on suspicion of deliberately driving a car into a trade union demonstration on Thursday.

Police said he may have had Islamist extremist motives for the attack.