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2015 Graz car attack

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On 20 June 2015, Alen Rizvanović drove a sports utility vehicle at high speeds through the center of Graz, Austria, killing three people in a matter of minutes and injuring 43 others, one of them dying months later. At one point during the attack, Rizvanović got out of the vehicle and stabbed two passers-by.

2015 Graz car attack
The Grazer Herrengasse, one of the crime scenes (photo from 2003).
LocationGraz, Austria
Date20 June 2015; 9 years ago (2015-06-20)
12:15 p.m. – 12:20 p.m.
Weapons
Deaths4
Injured36
PerpetratorAlen Rizvan Rizvanović
Map
Route of the 2015 Graz car attack. Places where fatalities occurred are marked.

Rizvanović was arrested and given a life sentence. He committed suicide in prison in September 2023.[1]

Attack

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On 20 June 2015, a vehicular attack occurred at 12:15 p.m. in the center of the Austrian city of Graz. Alen Rizvanović, the driver, intentionally killed and injured pedestrians and cyclists by hitting them with a green SUV-type Daewoo Rexton, which he was driving at an estimated speed of up to 100 kilometres (62 mi) per hour.[2] According to a spokesperson, the rampage started in Zweiglgasse, where one victim died. Rizvanović then drove through the city, passing over the Schönaugasse bridge and entering Herrengasse, where he killed two more people. He then crashed into a café seating area in the Hauptplatz (main square), where an event related to the 2015 Austrian Grand Prix was being held.[3][4]

During his attack, Rizvanović jumped briefly out of his car, ran up to an elderly couple in front of a grocery shop, and stabbed them with a knife, wounding the man severely. He then drove to a police station at Schmiedgasse and was arrested by police without resistance.[5] A witness compared the sounds of chairs and tables being knocked over by the vehicle to a "gunfight".[3] The attack lasted for five minutes.[6] Sixty ambulances and four helicopters were sent to transport injured victims to hospitals.[7]

Victims

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Three people were immediately killed in the attack and a total of 43 others, including at least three children, were wounded, six of them seriously and one critically.[2][6][8] One person died months later in hospital.[8] Most of the victims were hit by Rizvanović's car, others he attacked with a knife. The identity of one of the fatalities remained unclear for weeks.[9]

Perpetrator

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Alen Rizvan Rizvanović, was 26-year-old when he carried out the attack. At the age of four he had fled along with his parents to Austria during the Bosnian War as a refugee and he later became an Austrian citizen. Rizvanović eventually found employment as a truck driver. He was under a restraining order filed on 28 May, which kept him away from the home of his wife and two young children following a domestic violence report being filed against him a month prior.[10][11] As a result of the restraining order, police revoked Rizvanović's weapon's licence and confiscated a semiautomatic firearm and ammunition belonging to him.[2]

The motive was not immediately clear, but a few hours after the attack, police ruled out any religious or ideological motives. When he was arrested, Rizvanović claimed that he felt persecuted by "Turks". On 23 June, a remand was imposed on him. The previous day, it was reported by Austrian newspaper Die Presse that the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution and Counterterrorism is "interested in Rizvanović". There are claims that Rizvanović had shifted to a stricter interpretation of Islam.[12] Prior to the attack, he had more than 2,500 followers on Twitter, many of them from Arab countries and at least one a suspected neo-Nazi, but he deleted all of the tweets and messages on his online accounts, except for one, which indicated that the crime was premeditated and not the deed of a mentally ill person.[2]

Rizvanović was tried and sentenced to life imprisonment in 2016.[13] On the morning of 23 September 2023, Rizvanović was found dead in his solitary cell at the Stein Correctional Facility. His death was ruled a suicide.[14]

Reactions

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A place for condolences in the Herrengasse, in front of the Grazer Stadtpfarr Church (22. June 2015).

Austrian President Heinz Fischer issued a statement and said he was "deeply shocked" by the attack. Johanna Mikl-Leitner, the Austrian Interior Minister, said during a visit to the scene of the attack, "What happened here is unthinkable. There is no excuse for it."[15] Styria governor Hermann Schützenhöfer issued a statement, saying, "We are shocked and dismayed...here is no explanation and no excuse for this attack."[3] Graz mayor Siegfried Nagl, who witnessed the rampage unfold, ordered events in Graz to be canceled and black flags of mourning to be raised above municipal buildings.[7]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "U zatvoru se ubio trostruki ubica Alen Rizvanović, manijak koji je autom gazio pješake po Grazu". N1 Bosnia and Herzegovina (in Bosnian). 27 September 2023. Retrieved 12 September 2024.
  2. ^ a b c d "Police reconstruct events of Graz tragedy". The Local. 23 June 2015. Retrieved 23 June 2015.
  3. ^ a b c Dearden, Lizzie (21 June 2015). "At least three killed in Austria after man drives into crowd before 'stabbing passers-by' in Graz". The Independent. Archived from the original on 1 May 2022. Retrieved 8 July 2015.
  4. ^ Hayward, Stephen; Wellman, Alex (20 June 2015). "Graz car deaths: Three dead and dozens injured as maniac driver rams his car into crowds". Daily Mirror. Retrieved 8 July 2015.
  5. ^ "Three dead as car rams into crowd in Graz". The Local. 20 June 2015. Retrieved 8 July 2015.
  6. ^ a b Hall, Melanie (20 June 2015). "Man kills three after ploughing car into shoppers before getting out and stabbing bystanders". The Telegraph. Retrieved 8 July 2015.
  7. ^ a b "Fatal car crash on crowd in Austrian city of Graz". BBC News. 20 June 2015. Retrieved 20 June 2015.
  8. ^ a b König-Krisper, Monika (14 June 2020). "Amokfahrt in Graz: Die Wunden werden nie verheilen". Kronen Zeitung (in Austrian German). Retrieved 5 November 2023.
  9. ^ Scheriau, Erwin (23 September 2023). "Amokfahrt erschütterte vor acht Jahren Graz und ganz Österreich". Die Presse (in German). Retrieved 5 November 2023.
  10. ^ Hall, Melanie (21 June 2015). "Bosnian 'with history of beating wife' accused of ploughing car into Austria crowd". The Telegraph. Retrieved 21 June 2015.
  11. ^ "Man Runs Car Into Crowd in Austria, Killing 3, Injuring 34". The New York Times. 20 June 2015. Retrieved 20 June 2015.
  12. ^ "Graz: Behörden prüfen Kontakte des Amokfahrers [Graz: authorities check contacts of the attacker]". Die Presse (in German). 22 June 2015. Retrieved 22 June 2015.
  13. ^ Dearden, Lizzie (7 October 2016). "Man who drove into pedestrians shouting Allahu Akbar 'was just singing along to rap music while buying pizza' parents say". Independent. Archived from the original on 1 May 2022. Retrieved 18 March 2018.
  14. ^ "Justizanstalt Stein: Grazer Amokfahrer (33) tot in Zelle aufgefunden". www.kleinezeitung.at (in German). 23 September 2023. Retrieved 24 September 2023.
  15. ^ "Graz in shock after deadly street rampage". The Local. 21 June 2015. Retrieved 8 July 2015.
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