Icon: enlarge
Candles and flowers in Vienna in the area of a crime scene
Photo: Helmut Fohringer / dpa
After further breakdowns by the authorities in connection with the Islamist attack in Vienna became known, the Austrian government took personal consequences.
The head of the Vienna State Office for the Protection of the Constitution and Combating Terrorism (LVT), Erich Zwettler, was suspended from duty, as the Vienna Police President Gerhard Pürstl announced at a press conference in Vienna.
The Austrian government also ordered the closure of two radical Islamic mosques in Vienna that the perpetrator had visited.
The Islamist shot at bar visitors and restaurant workers in Vienna on Monday evening, killing four people, including a German.
The attacker also injured 22 other people before being shot by police officers.
The terrorist militia "Islamic State" (IS) claimed the attack for itself.
Interior Minister speaks about "obvious mistakes"
Interior Minister Karl Nehammer admitted further omissions by the authorities before the attack on Friday.
There have been "obvious and, in our opinion, intolerable errors," he said.
Accordingly, the assassin apparently had contact with people who were on the radar of the German constitutional protection.
A corresponding advice from the German authorities in Austria was therefore without consequences.
In connection with the attack, the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) also searched apartments and shops in several German cities on Friday morning.
As the BKA announced, two of the four people who were searched are said to have met the assassin in Vienna in July.
Nehammer had already admitted on Wednesday that the Slovak secret service had informed the Austrian authorities about an attempted purchase of ammunition by the perpetrator before the attack.
According to Police President Pürstl, the head of the Vienna State Office for the Protection of the Constitution has now been suspended from duty at his own request.
The head of the authorities decided to take the step in order not to stand in the way of a "proper investigation and clarification", said Pürstl.
A total of 16 suspects have been arrested since the attack four days ago.
As the public prosecutor's office announced to the AFP news agency, six of them have since been released.
Eight arrested persons between the ages of 16 and 24, however, are strongly suspected of having helped the perpetrator in the run-up to the attack.
Icon: The mirror
kfr / AFP