A witness filmed the incident

Here, the Linz knife attacker flees after the attack

The Croatian man also repeatedly threatened his pursuers with a knife.(Bild: zVg, Krone KREATIV)

Instead of the fresh air they had hoped for, a young couple from Linz had to witness the final minutes of the knife attacker’s (34) escape. While she relayed his location to the police, he filmed the terrifying scenes unfolding beneath their window. Two men had pursued the attacker until he was finally apprehended.

Even at sunset, it was still pleasantly warm on Saturday. Many windows in the city were therefore open—including those of a young man from Linz (26) and his girlfriend of the same age across from the Regional Administrative Court. But instead of mild spring air, the resident witnessed the final minutes of a brutal knife attacker’s escape: “Suddenly I heard screams on the street. At first I thought it was just some drunken commotion,” said the witness. But suddenly a voice rang out from the street: “He stabbed someone!”

Scenes Filmed
The Linz resident immediately grabbed his cell phone and filmed the situation below his window. Two men dressed in dark clothing were chasing a man dressed in white, trying to stop him and shouting at him to put down his knife. But time and again, the man being chased lunged at the two men—the blade thrust forward menacingly. 

Time and again, the Croatian also threatened his pursuers with the knife.(Bild: zVg, Krone KREATIV)

No idea of the bloodbath
“My partner called the police and reported that a man was threatening two other men with a knife on the street, and gave them the location. Just about two minutes later, he was arrested at the Volksgarten; six or seven heavily armored police officers pinned him to the ground and handcuffed him,” the eyewitness described in an interview with the “Krone.” At that point, he still had no idea of the shocking bloodbath that the attacker—a 34-year-old Croatian from Linz—had caused just a few hundred meters away as the crow flies on Landstraße. 

Victim’s brother chased the perpetrator
“I then spoke with one of the two pursuers. He was a store detective and said the man had stabbed his brother. He had run after him along with another man to prevent him from escaping,” the young man continued. 

Although he charged at the two pursuers with the knife several times, they did not let him get away.(Bild: zVg, Krone KREATIV)

Croatian in custody
The bloody toll: The 26-year-old Afghan Mahmoud A. succumbed to his severe injuries shortly afterward in the hospital despite the doctors’ best efforts. His younger compatriot (24) had been stabbed in the neck area. He required emergency surgery, was out of danger by Sunday, but was not yet fit to be questioned. The perpetrator, a Croatian man (34) born in Austria, was transferred to the Linz correctional facility on Sunday evening and placed in pretrial detention. 

Threat Carried Out
As reported, he had told his wife that he would kill someone and then commit suicide. She took his words seriously and called the police, but to no avail: even while the manhunt was underway, the 34-year-old—who had multiple prior convictions and suffered from mental illness—carried out his terrible threat.