In light of the country’s domestic intelligence agency received information suggesting an extremist attack was being planned, Vienna police stepped up armed patrols at sensitive sites in the Austrian capital including churches on Wednesday.
The city’s police took the rare step of warning the public on social media that there would be a heightened presence of armed police, including special forces, in the city.
Vienna is among the safest capitals in the world and militant attacks are rare. The first deadly attack in a generation took place in 2020 when a terrorist gunman killed four people in a shooting rampage before being shot dead by police.
“Our intelligence services have reason to believe that an assault with an [extremist] motive is planned to be carried out in Vienna,” Vienna police said in English on Twitter.
“As precautionary measure… points of interest have been put under increased guard by regular & special operation police forces,” the police said, adding that it was not possible to say how long the special measures would last.