Five monks were tied up and held for hours in incident that left one seriously hurt

This article is more than 8 months old

This article is more than 8 months old

Five monks have been injured, one seriously, during a robbery at a monastery church in a suburb of Vienna, Austrian police have said.

Two suspects fled the scene after ambushing the church in the northern suburb of Floridsdorf at about 1.30pm local time (12.30 GMT). They tied the monks up and held them for a number of hours, police said on Thursday.

The victims were found by officers at 4.17pm.

“As far as we know so far, at least one of the suspects demanded cash and valuables. The exact motive is not yet known. But we are ruling out a possible terrorist motive,” the police said, adding that a large-scale manhunt had been launched to find the suspects.

In a separate incident earlier on Thursday, Vienna’s St Stephen’s Cathedral was evacuated after a bomb scare, but reopened about an hour later when no explosives were found.</s>At least five monks were injured by uknown assailants in robbery at a church in Austrian capital Vienna, police said on Thursday.

Vienna police said in a tweet that two unknown perpetrators attacked several monks in Maria Immaculata church in Strebersdorf district.

Police found the monks tied up, one of them with head injuries, nearly three hours later. They were aged between 56 and 68, and it appeared that the others had tried to intervene after one of the assailants — described as speaking with a foreign accent — attacked the oldest monk, the Austria Press Agency reported.

Police said while the precise motive remains unclear, "a possible terror motive can be ruled out" in the incident at the church.

Security forces sealed the area as the search for the attackers and any additional victims were underway, police said.

In a later tweet, the police said five victims were priests and one of them was in critical condition.

Austrian newspaper Kronen Zeitung reported that the priests were discovered 3 hours after the attackers tied up before robbing them and a large manhunt was underway with police helicopters flying around the area.</s>BERLIN (AP) — Austrian police say that five monks have been assaulted at a Vienna church by two people, at least one of whom apparently demanded money and valuables.

Police said the assault happened at about 1:30 p.m. (1230 GMT; 7:30 a.m. EST) Thursday at a complex in the city's Floridsdorf district. Police found the monks tied up, one of them seriously injured, nearly three hours later.

Police wrote on Twitter that, while the precise motive remains unclear, "a possible terror motive can be ruled out" in the incident at the Maria Immaculata church.

Officers were searching for the perpetrators, including in the convent where the incident took place.</s>Five monks at a church in Austria’s capital of Vienna were held captive for hours Thursday by two suspects who are still at large, local police said. One monk was seriously injured during the attack.

The attack happened around 1:30 p.m. local time (7:30 a.m. ET) at Maria Immaculata in Strebersdorf.

Vienna Police said in a series of tweets that two unidentified assailants entered the church with at least one of the suspects demanding money and valuables from the monks.

The monks were found tied up at the church hours after the attack, police tweeted.

It’s not clear whether the suspects were armed. Police said the attack was not terrorism-related.

A motive for the attack, which happened days after Christmas, is not clear.</s>Five monks were assaulted at a Vienna church on Thursday by two people, at least one of whom apparently demanded money and valuables, police said.

Police said the assault happened at about 1:30 p.m. (1230 GMT; 7:30 a.m. EST) at a complex in the city’s Floridsdorf district. No church service was underway when the assailants entered the Maria Immaculata church.

Police found the monks tied up, one of them with head injuries, nearly three hours later. They were aged between 56 and 68, and it appeared that the others had tried to intervene after one of the assailants — described as speaking with a foreign accent — attacked the oldest monk, the Austria Press Agency reported.

Police wrote on Twitter that, while the precise motive remains unclear, “a possible terror motive can be ruled out” in the incident at the Maria Immaculata church..

Officers were searching for the perpetrators, including in the complex where the incident took place. They said Thursday evening that they had found nothing in the building.</s>Five monks have been assaulted at the Maria Immaculata church in Vienna's Floridsdorf district, with one suffering head injuries.

Two assailants, one armed with a pistol, beat a 68-year-old monk and then overwhelmed four others as they came to help, police spokesman Harald Sörös told Austria's APA news agency.

Police were notified three hours later and found the five clerics — the youngest aged 56 — tied up. They were all taken to hospital. The eldest had suffered head wounds, possibly from a metal bar.

A sixth man was also held in an adjacent office but not hurt, police said.

At the time, no church service was taking place.

Vienna's Catholic Cardinal Christoph Schönborn said he was "deeply disturbed" by the incident.

"Churches are places of peace and care; we're especially conscious of this at Christmastime … I pray for the rapid recovery of the victims and repentance by the perpetrators," he said.

Despite a large manhunt into Thursday evening, police have not yet found the assailants, who reportedly demanded cash and valuables from the monks. Söros ruled out terrorism as a motive for the attack.</s>Austrian's capital has been rocked by an unprecedentedly brazen burglary, after two suspects stormed a monastery church in the northern part of Vienna and robbed it, leaving about a dozen of monks injured.

The crime took place in broad daylight; the perpetrators broke into the Church of Maria Immaculata in Vienna’s district of Floridsdorf around 13:30 local time (12:30 GMT), police said in a statement.

The robbery lasted for hours, they reported, adding that police have also found “tied and [in some instances] heavily injured” monks only three hours later.

A large-scale manhunt was launched following the incident as major police forces were deployed to the scene as the area around the church was cordoned off. The officers also asked local residents to avoid the area and “let [our] colleagues do their job.”

In a follow-up statement, the police said that at least one of the attackers “demanded valuables and cash” from the monks. The investigators also said they are not treating the incident as a terrorist attack while also admitting that the exact motives behind the robbery are “still unclear.”

to RT newsletter to get stories the mainstream media won’t tell you.</s>A number of monks have been injured, some seriously, in a brazen, broad daylight attack on a church in Vienna which the authorities are describing as a “robbery”.

Law enforcement say two attackers, for whom no descriptions have been issued, broke into the Maria Immaculata church around 1:30 p.m., beginning an ordeal which lasted for several hours.

Officers say they found five monks “shackled” shortly after 4 o’clock in the afternoon, one with serious injuries.

“According to the current state of investigation, at least one of the unknown perpetrators is likely to have demanded valuables and cash,” they confirmed on social media.

“The exact motive is still unclear at the moment, but a possible terror motive can be ruled out,” they claimed.

As of approximately 5 p.m. GMT, the church remained sealed and subject to a thorough search, with Austrian police explaining that “as it is a larger building complex [it] cannot currently be ruled out that perpetrators or victims are still in the building”.

The search was lifted around 6 p.m. GMT, having proven unsuccessful, although the area in the immediate vicinity of the church remains cordoned off pending further investigation.</s>Five monks have been injured including one seriously during a robbery at a monastery church in a suburb in Vienna, police said on Thursday.

Two suspects fled the scene after ambushing the church in the northern suburb of Floridsdorf at around 1:30 pm (1230 GMT), tying the monks up and holding them for a number of hours, police said in a statement.

The victims were found by officers at 4:17 pm, they said.

"As far as we know so far, at least one of the suspects demanded cash and valuables. The exact motive is not yet known. But we are ruling out a possible terrorist motive," the police said, adding that a large-scale manhunt has been launched to find the suspects.

In a separate incident earlier on Thursday, Vienna's St. Stephen's Cathedral was evacuated following a bomb alarm, but re-opened about an hour later after no explosives were found.</s>Police found the monks tied up, one of them with head injuries, nearly three hours later. They were aged between 56 and 68, and it appeared that the others had tried to intervene after one of the assailants — described as speaking with a foreign accent — attacked the oldest monk, the Austria Press Agency reported.
Five Christian monks are tied up and then left injured, one of them seriously, after a robbery at a church in Vienna, Austria.