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A Syrian migrant living in Austria has been hailed as a hero after he rammed his car into an attacker, bringing down a radicalised assailant who had killed one teenager and left five others injured.
The stabbing, described by Austria’s interior minister as having been carried out by a Syrian man who was legally living in the country and who had become radicalised by the Islamic State group, took place Saturday in the southern Austrian city of Villach.
As the country mourned, many hailed the bravery of Alaaeddin al-Halabi, a food delivery driver who left Syria in 2015 and who had been driving past the area on Saturday when he noticed a commotion. He slowed down, he told Reuters, “because there were many people, some running, some scared, and some were shouting for help”.
It was then that he noticed that one of the people at the scene had a knife. “I immediately understood what was happening – there were people on the ground bleeding, and this person was waving the knife in a threatening manner.”
Al-Halabi sprang into action. “I immediately drove toward him and hit him with my car. The good thing is that the impact wasn’t too strong, thank God,” he said. “I mean, the goal of hitting him with the car was just to neutralise him or stop what he was doing. The goal wasn’t to harm anyone.”
In the confusion that followed, al-Halabi said he was shocked to see some in the crowd turn on him, telling newspaper Kleinen Zeitung that he locked himself into his car as some people began to hit his vehicle. Speaking to Reuters, he said: “People attacked me after the incident – people on the street thought I was carrying out an attack like what happened in Germany.”
The attack came days after a 24-year-old Afghan asylum seeker drove a car into a trade union demonstration in neighbouring Germany, killing a two-year-old girl and her mother as well as injuring 37 others. It was the fifth high-profile attack involving migrants to Germany in the past nine months, leading politicians to seize on migration as a talking point ahead of snap elections on 23 February.
In Austria, Saturday’s attack killed a 14-year-old boy and wounded five others, all of whom were believed to have been targeted randomly.
Speaking to reporters, police spokesperson Rainer Dionisio later said al-Halabi’s actions had played a role in halting the attack. “It was probably a heroic act, yes. It prevented something worse from happening,” he said.
The sentiment was echoed by the mayor of Villach, Günther Albel. “We are very grateful to the man who intervened selflessly, courageously and decisively and thus prevented something even worse from happening, as well as to the rapid deployment of the police,” he said in a statement.
State governor Peter Kaiser also thanked al-Halabi, saying that his intervention “shows how closely terrorist evil but also human good can be united in one and the same nationality”.
As media across Austria described al-Halabi as a hero, the 42-year-old brushed off the label.
“People look at me as a hero, but I don’t see it that way,” he said. “I say to people: ‘Please, if something like this happens again, you have to do something. You can’t just stand there, take photos and film videos’.”
As Austria reeled from the stabbing, rightwing politicians sought to reinforce their hardline views on migration. Late last year, Austria was among the dozen European countries who suspended the processing of asylum applications from Syrians after the fall of the Assad regime in Damascus, with officials in Austria saying they were preparing a “repatriation and deportation” programme to the country.
The attack was the country’s second deadly extremist attack in recent years. In November 2020, a man who had previously attempted to join the Islamic State group carried out a rampage in Vienna, armed with an automatic rifle and a fake explosive vest, killing four people before he was fatally shot by police.
In August, authorities foiled plans for an attack on a Taylor Swift concert that was inspired by the Islamic State group.
In the wake of Saturday’s attack, those who weighed in included the Free Syrian Community of Austria, a support group for Syrians, who expressed its deepest condolences to the victims’ families and sought to distance the suspect from the tens of thousands of Syrians who live in the country peacefully.
“We all had to flee Syria, our home country, because we were no longer safe there – no one left their country voluntarily. We are grateful to have found asylum and protection in Austria,” it said on social media. “We would like to emphasise: anyone who causes strife and disturbs the peace of society does not represent the Syrians who have sought and received protection here.”
