Austria’s intelligence agency, the Directorate for State Security and Intelligence (DSN), has successfully thwarted a planned Islamist terrorist attack on Vienna’s annual gay pride parade that took place on Saturday, June 17th, The Financial Times reported. Lately, authorities have been warning of an increased likelihood of Islamist attacks across the EU.
The suspects—three Austrian citizens of Bosnian and Chechen descent aged 14, 17, and 20—had allegedly schemed to attack parade participants with an array of weapons, including firearms, grenades, knives, a saber, and an ax. Authorities also believe that the trio may have considered using a vehicle to plow into the crowd (as in the 2016 terror attack in Nice, which killed 86).
The Rainbow Parade, one of Europe’s largest gay pride events, took place on Vienna’s Ringstrasse and drew an estimated 300,000 attendees this past Saturday. As the DSN’s press release indicated, the police were expecting the parade to be among the potential targets of the group. This was not the first time that pride events were targeted by Islamists in Europe, as it appears that these two vectors of diversity do not always mix well.
At a press conference held on Sunday, Omar Haijawi-Pirchner, the head of the DSN, revealed that the suspects had been under continuous surveillance for some time. They were eventually apprehended by a SWAT team just as they were preparing for the attack.
Counter-terrorism officials in Vienna suspect that the trio was radicalized online, as the DSN was closely monitoring their consumption of ISIS-linked propaganda. According to the intelligence agency, the suspects had made unsuccessful attempts to acquire more lethal, illegal weapons from abroad. However, no further details were provided on this matter.
It has been two and a half years since another Islamist attack in Vienna claimed four lives and left 23 people injured. Since the tragedy, Austrian authorities have prioritized the expansion of their counter-terrorism expertise and the reform of their national security apparatus, following the exposure of multiple embarrassing shortcomings.
Although the frequency of jihadist attacks in Europe has diminished in recent years, counter-terrorism officials across the continent are warning of a potential resurgence. As Europol recently reported, there were six completed, failed, or foiled Islamist attacks in 2022, and, out of the 380 arrests linked to suspicion of terror-related offenses across the 27 member states, Islamism was the motivating factor in 266 cases, or 70%.
During his visit to the United States last month, French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin also expressed concerns over the increasing likelihood of a resurgence of Islamist violence in Europe. He emphasized that this threat remains the primary risk among a variety of terror threats on the continent.
Earlier this month, Dutch counter-terrorism officials noted increasing signs that jihadist organizations are preparing to carry out terrorist attacks, consequently elevating the country’s threat level to “significant.”
The three suspects involved in the foiled attack on Vienna’s gay pride parade are currently being held in a prison in Saint Pölten in north-east Austria.
