VIENNA, Feb 16, (AP): A 23-year-old man stabbed six passersby in southern Austria on Saturday in what police said was a random attack that left a 14-year-old dead and five others injured. The suspect was detained in the city of Villach, where the attack took place, police said. He is a Syrian national with legal residence in Austria, they said.

Police spokesperson Rainer Dionisio said a motive was not immediately known. He added that police were investigating the attacker’s personal background. "We have to wait until we get secure information,” he said. A 42-year-old man who works for a food delivery company witnessed the incident from his car, police said. He drove toward the suspect and helped to prevent things from getting worse, Dionisio told Austria’s public broadcaster ORF.

The victims were all men, with two seriously injured and two sustaining minor injuries, police said. Later on Saturday, police said a fifth person, also a man, was injured in the attack. Peter Kaiser, the governor of the Austrian province of Carinthia, expressed his condolences to the family of the 14-year-old victim. "This outrageous atrocity must be met with harsh consequences.

I have always said with clarity and unambiguously: Those who live in Carinthia, in Austria, have to respect the law and adjust to our rules and values.” Far-right leader Herbert Kickl said on the X social media platform that he is "appalled by the horrific act in Villach” and wished the family of the 14-year-old victim who was killed in the attack "much strength.”

"At the same time, I am angry - angry at those politicians who have allowed stabbings, gang wars and other capital crimes to become the order of the day in Austria. This is a first-class failure of the system, for which a young man in Villach has now had to pay with his life,” Kickl said. "From Austria to the EU - the wrong rules are in force everywhere.

Nobody is allowed to challenge them, everything is declared sacrosanct,” he said, adding that his party had outlined what he viewed as necessary changes to immigration laws in his party’s election platform. "We need a rigorous crackdown on asylum and must not continue to import conditions like those in Villach.” Conservative party leader Christian Stocker said on X that the attacker "must be brought to justice and be punished with the full force of the law.”