Austria gunman kills 4 in ongoing standoff
Image grab from video released by Islamic State and identified by private terrorism monitor SITE Intelligence Group on September 2, 2014, purportedly shows "Jihadi John", the masked IS militant apparently responsible for beheading of western hostagesA gunman in Austria killed four people, including three police officers, and was firing sporadically Tuesday at police after barricading himself in a farm building, police officials said.
After a 12-hour standoff, police on Tuesday stormed the building on the outskirts of Melk, 70km west of Vienna, but had not found the man, Interior Ministry spokesman Karl-Heinz Grundbock said.
The killings began shortly after midnight on Monday when police stopped the man on a road near a wilderness area west of Vienna, where frequent poaching incidents occur.
The gunman fled in his car, before crashing it into a ditch in the nearby town of Annaberg. He then shot and wounded a member of Cobra armed police team at a police checkpoint.
The gunman then shot and killed an ambulance driver who was trying to aid the wounded policeman, who later died. The gunman also shot and wounded another officer at the scene.
He then shot and killed another police officer while stealing his patrol car. The vehicle and the officer\’s body were found on Tuesday.
The attacker then fatally shot another police officer at a roadblock before barricading himself in the farm building.
State broadcaster ORF reported that the suspect was a 55-year-old poacher. Police identified him only as Alois H, in keeping with Austrian law allows suspects anonymity.
Source: Agencies
The Times of Earth ( TOE) founded in 1999, is a multilingual newspaper that is printed and circulated in many countries including some parts of the United States and Canada. It is considered as the largest trusted & respected international multimedia news/financial information source of the world.