One of Vienna's terrorists was a Daesh follower convicted of trying to travel to Syria

One of the alleged perpetrators of Monday's terrorist attack in Vienna was a 20-year-old follower of the Jihadist group Daesh with a criminal record who had been imprisoned and released early last December, Interior Minister Karl Nehammer informed the Austrian agency APA. 

He is Kujtim Fejzulai, the terrorist killed last night by the Vienna police shortly after he and at least one other attacker fired automatic and semi-automatic weapons indiscriminately at passers-by and diners at bars and restaurants, killing at least four people and injuring 18.

The attacker was sentenced to prison on 25 April 2019 for attempting to travel to Syria to join the Daesh terrorist group, and on December 5 he was granted early parole under Juvenile Court Law (JGG), reported APA. 

"He was definitely a Daesh supporter," Nehammer stressed, after stating hours earlier that "at least one Islamist terrorist" was involved in the attack. 

He was shot dead by police near Ruprechtskirche Church at 8.09 p.m. local time (19.09 GMT) on Monday, a few minutes after the first shots were heard in the city centre, and was identified early Tuesday after specialised bomb disposal units confirmed that the apparent explosives he was carrying were fake. 

According to the Viennese magazine "Falter" - not officially confirmed - the attacker who was shot dead was an Austrian-born man in 2000, the son of Albanian immigrants from Northern Macedonia.

Early this morning, the police forced their way into the dead attacker's Viennese home and then arrested several people from the alleged attacker's entourage. 

Another attacker was still on the run and the police do not rule out that there are more people involved in the attack. 

"Four defenceless civilians were killed at close range in cold blood: an elderly man, an elderly woman, a young passerby and a waitress. They were suddenly and unexpectedly taken from their lives. A police officer, who bravely confronted the perpetrator, was shot and wounded", said Austrian Federal Chancellor Sebastian Kurz. 

In a speech to the nation, the head of government also stressed that several wounded people "are fighting for their lives" in Viennese hospitals. 

"It is now confirmed that yesterday’s attack was clearly an Islamist terror attack,” Kurz said. “It was an attack out of hatred — hatred for our fundamental values, hatred for our way of life, hatred for our democracy in which all people have equal rights and dignity," he added.