Excavations in Lower Austria

Terror investigations: Police search for weapons in the forest

In a wooded area near Sieghartskirchen (Tulln district) in Lower Austria, police are once again digging this week for a possible weapons cache belonging to the radical Islamist terror group "Islamic State Province of Khorasan" (ISPK). The excavations are connected to the suspected attack plans against St. Stephen's Cathedral before Christmas. 

The alleged plans to attack St. Stephen's Cathedral and Cologne Cathedral before Christmas had led to the arrests of several terror suspects in Vienna and Germany. In the Vienna-Josefstadt prison, a 30-year-old Tajik who was last reported in Germany, a compatriot who is two years younger and his 27-year-old wife, originally from Turkey, are in custody.

A total of seven suspects
A total of seven suspects are being investigated by the public prosecutor's office for terrorist association (§278b StGB) in connection with terrorist offenses (§278c StGB). The apartment of the Tajik-Turkish couple, who have lived in Vienna-Ottakring since 2022, is said to have played a key role in the "networking" of the suspected terrorist cell.

Called to "fight" on TikTok
A confidant of a radical preacher, who calls for a "fight against infidels" via Telegram and TikTok, allegedly repeatedly stayed there. The Ottakringer apartment is also said to have served as a place to stay for the 30-year-old Tajik when he stopped off in Vienna. The man, who was arrested on the basis of a European arrest warrant on December 24 in Wesel on the Lower Rhine and subsequently extradited to the Viennese judiciary, had been the focus of the German domestic intelligence service for some time. He was observed filming St. Stephen's Cathedral in an atypical manner for tourists, checking it for surveillance cameras and tapping the walls.

Others suspected to be involved in Istanbul
From Vienna, the 30-year-old also flew to Istanbul for a few days, where other members of the terror cell are suspected, returned to Vienna on December 18 and also took photos and video recordings of the Prater on December 19 - possibly another potential target of the ISKP cell.