One dead, four injured in Austria knife attack

A 23-year-old Syrian asylum seeker stabbed several passers-by in the centre of the Austrian town of Villach on Saturday, killing a 14-year-old boy and injuring four other people, police said, adding that the suspected attacker had been arrested.

Further details, such as whether the attacker knew any of the victims, remained unclear, a spokesperson for the police in the southern state of Carinthia, Rainer Dionisio, said. The injured were aged between 14 and 32, he added.

Dionisio said two of the injured people were in a serious condition in hospital after the stabbings.

The bloodshed in Villach followed an attack this week in Munich by an Afghan national who drove his car into a crowd of people, injuring dozens, two of whom later died.

Villach is known for its carnival and is in an area that is a tourist hotspot in the summer as it includes one of Austria's most famous lakes but otherwise attracts little attention.

"I have been in the (Carinthian police) press service for 20 years and cannot recall such an act," Dionisio told national broadcaster ORF.

A man whom Austrian media described as a Syrian food delivery driver charged into the attacker with his car and prevented him from harming more people, Dionisio said.

The 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.