BERLIN (GERMANY) – Police in Germany said on Friday they were conducting searches in several towns to trace four individuals who are believed to have ties with the Vienna attacker who killed four people by opening fire on bystanders and bars on Monday.
A 20-year-old man with dual citizenship in North Macedonia and Austria was shot dead by police. He had been jailed earlier for attempting to join the Islamic State in Syria.
BKA criminal police tweeted that they were undertaking searches in homes and businesses in the towns of Osnabrueck, Kassel and in the district of Pinneberg near Hamburg.
“There is no initial suspicion that the four people affected by today’s measures took part in the attack but there are believed to have been linked with the suspected attacker,” police said in the tweet.
They were given search warrants after the Austrian judiciary passed on information to German prosecutors, the BKA said.
In connection with the attacks on Monday, Swiss law enforcement officers arrested two men and Vienna is in close contact with another country as part of the probe, said Austrian Interior Minister Karl Nehammer on Thursday.
Austrian interior ministry officials said all 15 people arrested in connection with the attacks are part of the radical Islamic outfits.