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A teenager died and several other people were injured in Villach, Austria, on Saturday after a man attacked them with a knife, officials said. A suspect has been detained in connection with the attack; it is not clear whether he knew the victims.<\/p>\n
The attack happened around 4 p.m. local time, killing a 14-year-old and injuring four other people, according to the mayor of Villach, a city in the south near the Italian and Slovenian borders. The police told The Associated Press<\/a> that two people were seriously injured.<\/p>\n The suspect is a 23-year-old Syrian man with legal residence in Austria, local police officials said in an interview<\/a> with Austria\u2019s public broadcaster ORF. It is not known if he lived in Villach. The motive is also unknown, but police are investigating the suspect\u2019s background, said Rainer Dionisio, a spokesman for the police department in Carinthia, the province where Villach is located.<\/p>\n Peter Kaiser, Carinthia\u2019s governor, called for the \u201charshest consequences\u201d for the attacker, saying the perpetrator \u201cmust be put on trial, imprisoned, and deported\u201d in a post on X.<\/a> The city\u2019s mayor, G\u00fcnther Albel, wrote on Meta<\/a>: \u201cTo all those who sow hatred and violence, I say: You will not win.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Several similar attacks<\/a> in neighboring Germany in recent months, including a car attack in Munich last week, have pushed migration to the forefront of that country\u2019s national election campaign.<\/p>\n Millions of Syrians have sought refuge in Europe after a popular uprising against the nation\u2019s autocratic longtime leader, Bashar al-Assad, that began in 2011 turned into a civil war. The large migration has strained social safety nets in Europe and stirred concern about assimilation, which has at times taken openly xenophobic form and provided an opening for right-wing, nationalist political movements.<\/p>\n The collapse of the Assad regime in December prompted several European countries to pause legal proceedings on asylum status for Syrians. Austria has said it would plan to deport Syrians<\/a> whose claims for asylum failed.<\/p>\n Violence is relatively uncommon in Austria, which was ranked as the fifth-safest country in the world as of 2023, according to the Global Peace Index<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n