Skip to main content
BBC NEWS / EUROPE
Graphics VersionBBC Sport Home
News Front Page | Africa | Americas | Asia-Pacific | Europe | Middle East | South Asia | UK | Business | Health | Science & Environment | Technology | Entertainment | Also in the news | Have Your Say |
Monday, 1 October 2007, 16:00 GMT 17:00 UK

Vienna 'embassy bombing' foiled

Police investigate a backpack containing grenades, explosives and nails near the US embassy in Vienna, Austria Austrian police say they have arrested a man who attempted to enter the US embassy in Vienna with a bag containing explosives and nails.

The suspect is a 42-year-old man of Bosnian origin from the north-eastern province of Lower Austria, police spokeswoman Michaela Raz said.

He was arrested shortly after running off when his backpack triggered a metal detector at the embassy's entrance.

Nobody was injured in the incident, but police sealed off the area afterwards.

Nearby bus and tramway lines were also re-routed. Police are also patrolling the area with bomb-sniffing dogs.

'Grenades'

The suspect was caught by police at around 1200 (1000 GMT) not far from the embassy, which is situated on Boltzmanngasse street in the capital's 9th district.

Map

Doris Edelbacher of Austria's federal counter-terrorism office said the explosives found inside his bag resembled grenades, but that explosives experts were still trying to determine whether the devices could have been detonated.

"There were a lot of nails in that bag. Had it exploded, it would have had an enormous shrapnel effect," she told the Associated Press.

The backpack also contained a book in which a reference to Islam appeared, but she said it was not clear whether the attempted attack had an Islamic background.

Ms Edelbacher said the suspect spoke broken German and had for now only made "confused statements" whilst being questioned.

Last month, Austrian authorities arrested three people of Arab origin in connection with a video posted online that threatened Austria and Germany with attacks if the two countries did not withdraw their military personnel from Afghanistan.

The arrests came two days after a telephone bomb threat triggered an alert at a US air base at Spangdahlem in Germany.



E-mail this to a friend
Related to this story:
US base in Germany acts on threat (11 Sep 07 |  Europe )
Austria holds three over 'threat' (12 Sep 07 |  Europe )
Country profile: Austria (08 Aug 07 |  Country profiles )

RELATED INTERNET LINKS
US embassy in Vienna
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites



SEARCH BBC NEWS: 

News Front Page | Africa | Americas | Asia-Pacific | Europe | Middle East | South Asia | UK | Business | Health | Science & Environment | Technology | Entertainment | Also in the news | Have Your Say |

NewsWatch | Notes | Contact us | About BBC News | Profiles | History

^ Back to top | BBC Sport Home | BBC Homepage | Contact us | Help | ©