Austria has closed a mosque and an Islamic association frequented by a man who shot four people dead in a rampage through Vienna on Monday, Integration Minister Susanne Raab said on Friday.
The two sites had contributed to the attacker's radicalization, she told a news conference.
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Armed Austrian police officers during a raid at a mosque in Vienna, Austria
(Photo: EPA)
The 20-year-old convicted jihadist was shot dead by police within minutes of opening fire on bystanders and bars. He was later identified as Kujtim Fejzulai, a native of Vienna of North Macedonian descent.
The attack claimed by IS also took place just a dozen meters away from a building that symbolizes the city's rich Jewish history: the "Stadttempel," a magnificent 19th-century synagogue.
Fejzulai opened fire around 8pm in this small, cobbled square where several popular bars and restaurants are located, as well as Jewish community offices.
Investigators have not yet been able to determine if the gunman was targeting the square's Jewish locations, or if he just picked this place for its lively nightlife.
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Member of Austrian police stands next to a flower wreath at the scene of the attack
(Photo: AP)
Police in Germany on Friday searched homes and businesses linked to four people believed to have had ties to the shooter, whom Austrian authorities have described as an "Islamist terrorist".
People from Germany who were being monitored by German intelligence spent time with the attacker in the Austrian capital in the summer, Vienna police chief Gerhard Puerstl told the news conference.
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An outside view of a mosque after a raid at the mosque by Austrian police in Vienna, Austria
(Photo: EPA)
That information, combined with intelligence from Slovakia that the attacker had tried to buy ammunition there, could have led to a "different outcome" and a different assessment of the threat he posed, Puerstl said.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday condemned the attack and said that "Israel stands in total solidarity with Austria." The premier called on "civilized peoples" to unite against the threat of Islamist terrorism.
AFP and Itamar Eichner contributed to this story.