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Rumours of Afghan knifemen at synagogue denied by police

Rumours that two Afghan men had been arrested carrying knives outside a synagogue in Vienna were being denied by Austrian police on Saturday evening.

Published: 24 December 2016 23:06 CET
Rumours of Afghan knifemen at synagogue denied by police
Police attend a routine demonstration in Vienna. File photo: Paul Gillingwater

According to a report in the Israeli newspaper Arutz Sheva, the two men had been arrested after sitting on a bench outside a Vienna synagogue, armed with knives.

The paper reported that when a security guard approached the two men to ask what they were doing near the synagogue, they said they were Jews waiting for the rabbi and other members of the congregation. 

The guard notified the local police, who were stationed nearby.

The paper further reported that one of the suspects already known to the authorities.

Saturday evening is the beginning of the Jewish festival of Hanukkah, which commemorates the rededication of the Second Temple in Jerusalem.

According to police sources on Saturday evening, they were unaware of any official reports, and were in the process of confirming the situation. They denied that such an incident occurred when contacted on Sunday morning.

It is believed that the incident was nothing more than an Internet rumour, which was spread by the Israeli news source.

The Israelitische Kultusgemeinde Vienna (IKV) assured the members of its community on Saturday evening, “that there never was such an incident”, according to a report in the Wiener Zeitung.

Due to past threats, Vienna's synagogues and some embassies have an around-the-clock police presence, especially in the wake of the recent events in Berlin.

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POLICE

Why are Vienna’s police officers trying to get away from the capital?

Austria's Ministry of Interior is grappling with a surge in police transfer requests from Vienna. Police unions have warned the situation is worsening morale and contributing to staffing shortages.

Published: 3 September 2024 16:53 CEST
Why are Vienna's police officers trying to get away from the capital?

A growing number of police officers in Vienna are applying for transfers to other federal states, but lengthy waiting times have frustrated many. 

According to the Federal Ministry of the Interior (BMI), 580 civil servants in Vienna have submitted transfer requests, for a total of 799 across Austria. Despite these applications, the waiting list is long, and it can take several years, or even more than a decade, for a transfer to be approved.

Newspaper Kurier reported on one such case. Alex M (the officer asked to remain anonymous, the report said) is a Vienna police officer waiting 13 years to transfer to another state. M. initially applied for a transfer to Lower Austria but also to a second federal state without success. “Every year, you only move up a few places. It’s very gruelling,” he told the newspaper.

READ ALSO: How Austria wants to attract more police officers

Why are officers ‘fleeing’?

Kurier said the primary reason for M.’s desire to transfer is the overwhelming amount of overtime required in Vienna, a complaint voiced by other officers. Police officers in the capital logged over 2.2 million overtime hours last year alone, with some, like M., working up to 140 extra hours per month, Kurier said. 

Most police officers in Vienna come from other federal states, and many wish to return to their home regions after a few years of service. However, the high number of transfer requests and the limited availability of positions in other states mean that only a few requests are approved yearly.

‘It’s important to come clean’

Police unions have expressed concerns about the impact of these long waits on morale and the broader staffing crisis in Vienna.

Walter Strallhofer, a police unionist, criticised the unrealistic expectations set during recruitment. “Police students from the federal states are promised during recruitment that they will soon be able to leave Vienna. But that’s not true. It’s important to come clean with people. When you come to Vienna, you stay here for at least the next ten years.”, he said.

READ ALSO: When are police officers in Austria allowed to use their weapons?

Exceptions to the long wait times are made only in cases of social hardship, such as serious illness of family members. 

The BMI is exploring options to speed up the transfer process, including adjusting admission quotas to accommodate more officers from states with high transfer request numbers.

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