Vienna gunman acted alone, minister says
Video evidence has confirmed that the gunman who killed four people and injured 22 in a rampage in Vienna on Monday (November 2) acted alone.
That's after authorities analyzed more than 20,000 mobile phone videos handed in by the public.
The country's chancellor has called it a "terror attack," the deadliest in Austria's capital for decades, where the gunman opened fire on crowds in bars, until he was shot dead by police.
The Austrian Interior Minister Karl Nehammer said on Wednesday that Austria had fumbled intelligence on the gunman and that they would be investigating their own actions:
"Following mounting evidence from the investigations, video evidence was able to confirm the lone assailant theory. At the same time the videos showed us the extent of the brutal and horrific way the assailant carried out his attack."
The 20-year-old gunman had already been convicted in Austria for trying to join the Islamic State in Syria.
In July, Nehammer said Austria had received intelligence suggesting the attacker tried and failed to buy ammunition in neighboring Slovakia.
Nehammer repeated criticism of a deradicalisation program, saying the gunman had "perfectly" fooled the program, convincing them he no longer held jihadist beliefs.
Imam Demir Ramazan has worked as a prison chaplain and warned against extremism in prisons.
"In the prisons, things are really becoming a hotbed of radicalisation. We have to do everything together, government and society, to deradicalise and protect the majority of Muslims from this."
Austria's National Security Council signed off on setting up an independent enquiry commission later on Wednesday.
Neutral Austria, part of the US-led coalition formed in 2014 to defeat ISIS, has for years described jihadist attacks as its biggest national security threat.
At the end of 2018, authorities knew of 320 people from Austria who were tied to extremism in Syria and Iraq.
