The victim had met a friend when an unknown man suddenly attacked him out of the blue with punches and then fled. The man has been in hospital since then with serious internal head injuries. The suspect was tracked down and taken to a correctional facility, the state police directorate reported.
Victim resuscitated on site
The suspect burst into the two men’s meeting near the Westbahnhof in Vienna-Rudolfsheim-Fünfhaus at around 4:30 a.m. The man then punched the Somali man in the face several times. A short time later, he fled in the direction of Mariahilfer Strasse. The police were alerted shortly afterwards. Officers found the victim lying on the spot at Europaplatz with severe breathing problems. Officers then called the emergency services, who took over emergency care. “We resuscitated the patient and took him to a hospital,” said a spokesperson for the emergency services.
With a pistol at Europaplatz
The trail quickly led the officers of the State Criminal Police Office to the identity of the suspect. He is a 40-year-old of unknown nationality. After a police search, officers from the emergency unit finally came across the 40-year-old not far from the crime scene late on Tuesday evening. A passerby had alerted the officers to a man sitting on the stairs at Europaplatz who was obviously armed with a pistol. The police then checked him and determined that he was the wanted suspect. When he finally pulled out what they thought was a firearm during the search, the officers immediately brought him to the ground. He was arrested, but the weapon turned out to be a toy gun.
Investigations ongoing
The accused refused to make any statement to the criminal investigators. He has since been taken to a correctional facility, the police said. The background to the attack has not yet been fully clarified. “The witness interviews are still ongoing,” said a police spokesman.
This article was last updated at 3:30 p.m.