Messenger surveillance

Karner after Munich case: “No more excuses”

Interior Minister Gerhard Karner calls for consequences after the attack in Munich.(Bild: APA/TOBIAS STEINMAURER)

Interior Minister Gerhard Karner (ÖVP) has called for consequences following the incident in Munich in which an 18-year-old boy was killed in a gunfight with the police. Karner congratulated the Munich authorities on their "successful and highly professional intervention". 

The fact that there was no catastrophe in Munich was thanks to the intervention of the police, said Karner at a press conference in Vienna on Thursday: "The decisive factor was the good tactics and appropriate equipment."

Karner: "No more excuses"
With regard to the debate about messenger services, the Interior Minister said that the case in Munich showed "how important and necessary it is for the Austrian authorities to finally get modern investigation methods": "There must be an end to playing down and making excuses."

The 18-year-old Austrian with Bosnian roots had apparently become radicalized online, like so many young fanatics. The boy had already been investigated for coercion and assault in 2023. In the course of this, the Salzburg man's cell phone was also examined.

Due to the material found at the time, state security was alerted. The case was reported to the Salzburg public prosecutor's office, but the proceedings were later "not pursued further", as Karner said. He himself had spoken to the German Minister of the Interior and the Bavarian Minister of the Interior on the phone several times on Thursday.

(Bild: zVg, Krone KREATIV)

(Bild: AP/Matthias Schrader)

(Bild: AFP)

(Bild: AFP/LUKAS BARTH-TUTTAS, Krone KREATIV)

"Radicalized individual perpetrator"
According to the minister, everything currently "points to a radicalized individual perpetrator". The weapon was an older category C long gun, a heavy rifle. 

The 18-year-old had opened fire at the NS Documentation Center in Munich on Thursday. He was then shot dead by the police.