Emotional words

Friend of the victim: “Wanted to meet today”

(Bild: Evelyn Hronek)

It's hard to put into words how Nina and Charlotte feel. They both knew the victim (14), who was stabbed by a Syrian asylum seeker during the religiously motivated rampage and eventually died.

"Today I woke up and realized that unfortunately it's not a dream, it really happened!", Charlotte fights back tears. She was a friend of the 14-year-old victim from Villach and is in complete shock. "We met through a mutual friend," she tells the "Krone".

The young man from Villach was brutally torn from his life by a 23-year-old Syrian man on Saturday. Shortly before the incident, Charlotte had been in contact with her friend via text messages: "Shortly before the incident, we agreed to meet up today. He was just a great person," she recalls, visibly emotionally moved. Charlotte will never forget the memory of skating with her boyfriend.

"He was always there for others"
Nina Juri also knew the victim; they had a brief relationship last year. Like many other young people, she visited the mourning zone on Sunday to say goodbye. "Until now, we were very good friends, he was like a best friend to me," Nina describes her ex-boyfriend, who was always helpful and kind. "He was always there for me - and now it's important that I'm there for others who are finding it just as difficult to deal with what happened!"

Nina's father accompanied his daughter and appealed to politicians: "We finally need stricter rules to put a stop to all this. Villach needs more police presence!" says Hubert Juri.

"Everything is so surreal"
Lorenz Meschik (19) also knew the victim from school: "The whole thing is so surreal because you only really know something like this from the news," said Lorenz, who lit a candle. "It could have happened to any one of us, my friends and I are already thinking about whether we should go to the carnival or out on the town in the evening," he says, describing the feeling of insecurity that has spread since the terrible incident in Villach.