Vienna terrorist attack: three dead, including one suspect, in Austria shootings – live updates
Vienna #Vienna
11.33pm EST 23:33
Trump: ‘These evil attacks against innocent people must stop’
US president Donald Trump has tweeted about the attack, calling it “evil” and a “vile act of terrorism.”
“The US stands with Austria, France, and all of Europe in the fight against terrorists, including radical Islamic terrorists,” Trump wrote
11.22pm EST 23:22
A reminder that you can get in touch with me directly via email on helen.sullivan@theguardian.com or Twitter @helenrsullivan.
A sincere thank you to those who have written to us already. We hope to have more updates from people who are currently in Vienna as the city wakes up. It is currently nearly 5.30 am. The police are due to hold a press conference at 6am.
10.50pm EST 22:50
As far as we understand, there is still one attacker currently being looked for by police.
“We have brought several special forces units together that are now searching for the presumed terrorists. I am therefore not limiting it to an area of Vienna, because these are mobile perpetrators,” Interior Minister Karl Nehammer told national broadcaster ORF late on Monday.
Kurz said the army would protect sites in the capital so the police could focus on anti-terror operations. Speaking to ORF, he said the attackers “were very well equipped with automatic weapons” and had “prepared professionally”.
Nehammer is due to hold a news conference on the situation at 6am lockal time (5am GMT) on Tuesday – just over an hour from now.
10.39pm EST 22:39
White House National Security Adviser: ‘There is no justification for hatred and violence like this’.
White House National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien has commented on the attacks, saying in a statement posted to the National Security Council’s Twitter account, “There is no justification for hatred and violence like this.”
10.26pm EST 22:26
Gruber said that when they emerged from the cafe, they saw police on the street corners pointing their weapons. Once the crowd had arrived at Schwedenplatz, the police asked them to raise their hands and to show they were not carrying weapons.
“That is the first time police ever aimed at me with their guns,” he said. They were told to take the subway, and Gruber and his friends travelled to another friend’s house where they stayed for a few hours before travelling home by cab. When we spoke, it was 4.30 in the morning an he was at home in the 16th district of Vienna. He had locked a gate that was almost never closed, he said.
“I think that this is an experience that almost nobody who lives here has ever had before,” he said. “I’ve been to several countries and have heard and watched about these attacks [in those countries],” he said.
“But I’ve never been close to one. It was really frightening.”
Police officers stand guard on a street in Vienna. Photograph: Xinhua/REX/Shutterstock
Updated at 10.39pm EST
10.19pm EST 22:19
I have just spoken on the phone to Gernot Gruber, a 24-year-old business student in Vienna. When the attacks began, Gruber was walking to the Hard Rock cafe in Vienna’s city centre, 100m from one of the attacks.
He had his headphones in, he said and when he took them out to greet the friend he was meeting for dinner, he heard several loud bangs.
“If you hear these noises in Austria you don’t think they’re gunshots, you really don’t,” he said. He thought they might be fireworks set off by people celebrating before the lockdown began. But when he and his friend entered the Hard Rock cafe, they heard an American saying he thought the sound was gunshots.
He and his friend followed the man downstairs as upstairs the restaurant staff locked the doors and told people to get away from the windows. A few minutes later, special forces police entered the building and told everyone to leave and run towards Schwedenplatz, away from the attack which was happening 100m away.
The exclamation mark on the map below shows where the attack occurred.
Google Maps showing location of Vienna Hard Rock cafe. Photograph: Google Maps
Updated at 10.24pm EST
9.52pm EST 21:52
Biden: We must all stand united against hate and violence
Joe Biden has tweeted his condolences saying that he and his wife Jill “are keeping the victims and their families in our prayers. We must all stand united against hate and violence.”
Updated at 10.40pm EST
9.51pm EST 21:51
Here is our video report about the attack tonight in Vienna:
Vienna shooting: residents warned to stay home as city targeted by terror attack – video
9.38pm EST 21:38
At 3.30am in Vienna, there are still helicopters circling overhead, readers have told me. Because it was the last night before Vienna’s lockdown came into effect, many people were taking the opportunity to go out for one last time.
While some who were in the city have finally made it home, others are spending the night in the places they were at when the attacks began. I have heard from the friends of lawyers sleeping at their offices, from attendees at a barre class that ended shortly after 8pm who are sleeping in the studio and from Markus Husa, who was at a restaurant nearby.
A man walks past closed market stalls at the Naschmarkt in Vienna on November 2, 2020, a few hours before a second lockdown. Photograph: Georg Hochmuth/APA/AFP/Getty Images
He says that he started to receive text messages at 9pm and that “at that time the first people were leaving the restaurant we were at, unaware of the situation.” His group informed the restaurant staff, who locked the doors and told people to stay inside.
“As I understand now, one site of shootings was a mere 100 meters from our location. It was difficult to get home as public transport didn’t stop anywhere near the first district, it was impossible to get a taxi and the city was to be avoided. Fortunately, a friend picked us up by car,” he says.
He says that friends of his were held in cinemas and theatres and have just arrived home.
We didn’t experience any first hand threat nor police in particular. Friends of mine were held for considerable stretches of time at theatres and cinemas, venues were evacuated by police, many of us just got home in past hour or so.
Updated at 9.51pm EST
9.27pm EST 21:27
The Vienna Police have announced that its “investigations regarding the assault will go on highest level” and that all available resources will be used to maintain public security in the city.
Here is the message in German for our Austrian readers:
9.18pm EST 21:18
Here is more from Rabbi Schlomo Hofmeister, who told London’s LBC radio he was living in the compound of the central Vienna synagogue.
“Upon hearing shots, we looked down (from) the windows and saw the gunmen shooting at the guests of the various bars and pubs,” he said.
“The gunmen were running around and shooting at least 100 rounds or even more in front of our building,” he said.
8.57pm EST 20:57
A reminder that you can get in touch with me directly via email on helen.sullivan@theguardian.com or Twitter @helenrsullivan.
A sincere thank you to those who have written to us already. We hope to have more updates from people who are currently in Vienna throughout the night.