A Syrian asylum seeker who viciously stabbed a 14-year-old boy to death and knifed several others was seen ‘laughing’ as he went on a rampage through an Austrian city.
The 23-year-old man, named locally as Ahmad G., allegedly shouted ‘Allahu Akbar’ before launching into a vicious attack just before 4pm on Saturday afternoon.
Spine-chilling images captured the suspect was seen grinning at police officers while they surrounded him with weapons during his arrest in Villach, near the borders with Italy and Slovenia.
The assault, which is believed to have lasted less than 10 minutes, saw five other people wounded and two of these rushed to hospital with serious injuries.
The horror was only brought to a close when a food delivery driver, who is also from Syria, witnessed the attacks and bravely intervened.
Heroic Alaaeddin Alhalabi, 42, aimed his car at the knifeman, hitting him with his vehicle in a desperate attempt to end the bloodshed before police closed in.
Austrian authorities have said they are investigating whether the suspect was aided by an accomplice and whether there was an Islamist motive behind the attack, which came just days after an Afghan bodybuilder fatally ploughed into a crowd of people in Munich.
Politicians in Austria have condemned the violence, with right wing parties laying the blame on the country’s ‘disastrous asylum policy’, while billionaire Elon Musk blasted European leaders over immigration following the latest incident.
A 23-year-old man stabbed 5 people in Austria, killing 1 in what police described as a random attack. Spine-chilling images of the arrest show a grinning man
A food delivery driver, Alaaeddin Alhalabi, 42, also from Syria , witnessed the knife rampage today from his car, and stopped the attacker
The attack in Austria comes after Farhad N., 24, injured at least 30 people, including a two-year-old child, when he ploughed his Mini Cooper through a demonstration in Munich on Thursday
A police spokesperson said it wasn’t clear whether the suspect acted on his own, while a motive was not immediately known.
The spokesperson could also not confirm whether the incident was a terrorist attack, but said police were investigating the attacker’s personal background. ‘We have to wait until we get secure information’.
Witnesses claimed that the suspect was heard shouting ‘Allahu Akbar’, according to local media.
An Islamist motive is being investigated, Austrian news outlet Kronen Zeitung reported.
A food delivery driver, Alaaeddin Alhalabi, 42, also from Syria, witnessed the stabbing from his car and bravely stopped the attacker from slashing more people.
Speaking to local press about the attack, Alhalabi said: ‘I was just about to pick up an order in Lederergasse when I saw all the blood and two injured people lying on the ground’.
‘He wanted to go towards the city centre, there were children on the street – I couldn’t let that happen’.
Police are seen after a knife attack near the main square in the city centre of Villach, southern Austria on February 15, 2025
A motive for the attack was not immediately known, police said
Officers of the Austrian State Criminal Police are seen near a cordoned off area after a knife attack near the main square
The attack took place in the Austrian city of Villach near the city centre
In the chaos of the situation, passers-by beat Alhalabi’s delivery car because ‘they thought I was the bad guy!’, he said.
The Austrian knife attack comes at a time of political upheaval in Austria as the far-right Freedom Party, which came first in September’s parliamentary election, said on Wednesday it had failed to form a coalition government. The president is now considering whether an alternative to a snap election is available.
Railing against illegal immigration and pledging to increase deportations to countries like Syria and Afghanistan, which it is currently illegal to deport people to, are central to the Freedom Party’s platform and appeal, and the party quickly seized on the Villach attack.
‘We need a rigorous crackdown on asylum and cannot continue to import conditions like those in Villach,’ Freedom Party leader Herbert Kickl said in a statement.
According to the Austrian Ministry of Interior, 24,941 foreigners applied for asylum in Austria in 2024. The largest group of applicants comes from Syria, followed by Afghanistan.
Over the past two years, the number of asylum seekers has decreased significantly. In 2022, applications peaked at over 100,000, while approximately 59,000 individuals sought asylum in 2023.
Several European countries, among them Austria, said in December they are suspending decisions on asylum claims by Syrian nationals because of the unclear political situation in their homeland following the fall of Bashar Assad.
Peter Kaiser, the governor of the Austrian province of Carinthia, spoke of Saturday’s horrific attack in an X post this evening.
‘The unbelievable atrocity in Villach must have the harshest consequences! Anyone who lives in Carinthia, in Austria, must respect the law. Anyone who violates this must face the harshest consequences’, he wrote.
Erwin Angerer, a lawmaker for the far-right Freedom Party, said his party had been warning about the situation in Austria as a result of the country’s ‘disastrous asylum policy.’
Austria’s Interior Minister Gerhard Karner was expected in Villach on Sunday morning.
The rampage comes just days after an Afghan refugee rammed a car into a crowd in Munich on Thursday and injured 39 people. On Saturday, police confirmed a woman and her two-year-old daughter had died from their injuries.
Footage from the scene captured the moment the driver was arrested, as cops swarmed the vehicle and pinned him to the ground.
Elon Musk has blasted European immigration policies after the continent was hit with a second deadly attack by an asylum seeker this week
Musk made his stance on migration in Europe known after he re-shared a post from Dutch right-wing political commentator Eva Vlaardingerbroek on social platform X
In a separate post, Musk retweeted an image of the grinning suspect and captioned it ‘Terrible’
Musk also retweeted a post from AfD leader Alice Weibel
Horror videos circulating online also saw several wounded victims lying in the streets being treated for injuries after the white car crashed through the crowd.
On social media, one witness, a German journalist, said the incident left people ‘crying and shaking’ on the ground.
‘A person was lying on the street and a young man was taken away by the police,’ Sandra Demmelhuber said.
‘People were sitting on the ground, crying and shaking. Details still unclear,’ the reporter added.
On Saturday, police confirmed a 37-year-old mother and her two-year-old daughter died from their injuries.
Authorities have said they are treating the incident as a religiously motivated attack.
The suspect has been named as Farhad N., a 24-year-old Afghan asylum seeker.
Gabriele Tilmann, the senior public prosecutor, said that Farhad N. had confessed during an interrogation to deliberately driving into the demonstration.
Elon Musk on Saturday blasted European immigration policies after the continent was hit with its second deadly attack by an asylum seeker this week.
Within hours of the rampage, the Tesla founder and billionaire made his stance on migration in Europe known after he re-shared a post from Dutch right-wing political commentator Eva Vlaardingerbroek on social platform X.
‘It happened again. This Syrian migrant stabbed a 14 y/o Austrian boy to death and injured 5 others today in Villach, Austria’, Vlaardingerbroek’s tweet said.
‘He proudly smiles after the fact. I wasn’t exaggerating when I said this happens daily in Europe: A one-sided civil war is waged on us Europeans’, she added.
In a separate post, Musk retweeted an image of the grinning suspect and captioned it ‘Terrible’.
Separately on Saturday, Musk also backed far-right Alternative for Germany party, also known as AfD, after he retweeted a post from the political group’s leader Alice Weidel.
‘US Vice President @JDVance calls for an end to the firewall! The Trump administration has also recognized that a migration turnaround can only be achieved with the AfD. Merz must now show whether he really wants an end to the deadly migration crisis. Therefore AfD!’, Weidel tweeted.
Sharing her post, Musk commented: ‘AfD!’.
Weidel’s remarks, which were reiterated by Musk, referred to US Vice President JD Vance, who spoke at the Munich Security Conference on Friday.
In the lengthy anti-immigration speech, Vance attacked European leaders for their approach to migration.
‘No voter on this continent went to the ballot box to open the floodgates to millions of unvetted immigrants,’ he said.
Turning to the UK, he added: ‘You know what they did vote for in England? They voted for Brexit and, agree or disagree, they voted for it.
The knife attack comes just days after a 39 people were injured in Munich when a car rammed into a crowd of protestors
Objects lying on the street at the scene in Munich, including a baby carriage
According to Munich police, at least 39 people were injured when a car drove into a crowd of demonstrators during a rally by the Verdi trade union in Munich’s city center on 13 February
‘Now, I happen to agree with a lot of these concerns, but you don’t have to agree with me.’
This is not the first time that Musk has expressed his feelings towards Europe’s migration policies.
Back in December, he infuriated Germany by claiming that the far-right AfD party is the only party that can ‘save’ the country.
There have also been concerns in Britain that Musk is taking a close interest in the country’s political scene, appearing to cosy up to Reform’s Nigel Farage.
Musk is reported to be considering a donation of as much as $100million (£80million) to help build up Reform into a political machine capable of overthrowing Labour at a general election.
