Austria arrests two in connection with Paris attacks
December 16, 2015
Prosecutors said on Wednesday police detained the two men over the weekend, although they didn’t give any further details about the arrests.
The two men had travelled to Austria from the Near East, where they’d been living at a refugee shelter in the northern city of Salzburg, a prosecutor said.
Austrian media reported that the two suspects were French and had been travelling on fake Syrian passports. According to one official who spoke to Austrian broadcaster ORF, it was not clear if the men had planned any terrorist attacks.
A series of coordinated attacks in Paris on the night of November 13 took the lives of 130 people. The so-called “Islamic State” (IS) terrorist group subsequently claimed responsibility.
Authorities in several European countries, including France and Belgium, have launched raids over the past month in an effort to crack down on extremists within their own borders. One of the attackers responsible for the Paris attacks, Abdeslam Salah, is still on the run.
blc/bw (dpa, AFP)