Swiss identified in Austrian bomb threat investigation
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Swiss identified in Austrian bomb threat investigation
Following a series of bomb threats against numerous institutions in Austria, security authorities have located the suspected author of the threatening emails in Switzerland.
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As announced by the Austrian Ministry of the Interior on Monday, a 20-year-old Swiss national has been identified as a result of investigations carried out by the Austrian state security service in cooperation with the public prosecutor’s offices in Graz and Linz. The Swiss national is considered a suspect, and a European arrest warrant has been issued for him.
Since September 30, the authorities have been investigating a total of 27 anonymous bomb threats across Austria, all of which were received by email. Train stations were particularly affected, but recently threats were also received against schools and shopping centres. The subsequent police operations sometimes led to evacuations.
A spokesperson for the Austrian Ministry of the Interior did not want to comment on Monday on how many threats the Swiss national is specifically responsible for. Austrian authorities told the Austrian Press Agency that the man is still at large in his home country.
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Swiss security and judicial authorities are also involved in the investigation. The European arrest warrant has been forwarded to the Swiss authorities for examination and enforcement. “This may take several weeks,” said the Ministry of the Interior. The background would also need to be clarified further, the ministry indicated on Monday.
According to the Austrian Federal Railways (ÖBB), around 450 trains and thousands of passengers were affected by the first five bomb threats at railroad stations alone. In total, train services were disrupted for around eight hours, the Austrian Federal Railways explained last week.
Translated from German by DeepL/jdp
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