Four people were seriously wounded in two knife attacks in a district of the Austrian capital, Vienna, on Wednesday evening, but a motive or any connection between the assaults was unclear, a police spokesman said.

The stabbings – the first of which took place at 7:45 p.m. (1845 GMT), occurred in Vienna’s Second District, which includes the famous Prater park as well as the Praterstern transport hub. It also houses much of Vienna’s small Jewish community.

“A man attacked a family – a father, a mother and their 17-year-old daughter – with a knife. The three people were seriously injured and their lives are in danger,” the spokesman said, adding later that they were Austrian citizens.

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“And half an hour later, there was another attack ... at Praterstern and here a person was also seriously injured and their life is in danger. We do not know to what extent there is a connection here and any motive remains unclear,” he said.

Asked what was known about an assailant, he added: “Absolutely nothing. We know we are looking for a man.”

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This is to coincide with his state of the nation address in Manila. AFP/Getty

A male citizen of Afghanistan was later arrested in connection with the second assault, but no further details were immediately available and any connection between the stabbings remained unclear, the spokesman said shortly afterward.

Vienna has not experienced deadly attacks by Islamist militants like the ones that have struck Paris, Berlin and Brussels since 2015.

Reuters</s>Four people were seriously injured in two stabbing attacks in Vienna, Austria, Wednesday evening. Hours after the attack, Vienna police announced that they had arrested a suspect, but no motive has yet been offered.A man reportedly attacked passerby indiscriminately with a knife in Praterstasse, a residential area by the Nestroyplatz metro station, next to Prater Park and just a few miles from Hofburg Castle. Praterstasse is also home to most of Vienna's Jewish population.The culprit then reportedly fled the scene. "And half an hour later there was another attack... at Praterstern and here a person was also seriously injured and their life is in danger. We do not know to what extent there is a connection here and any motive remains unclear," Maierhofer went on to say.A manhunt was launched, with both police and Vienna's tactical police unit WEGA deployed to the scene and surrounding area. Five hours after the attack, Vienna police announced that they had made an arrest over Twitter, although they did not specify who they had arrested. The site of the stabbing was closed off and Praterstasse residents were advised to remain in their homes.No motive for the attack has been reported yet. When asked what was known about the assailant during the manhunt, Maierhofer said, "Absolutely nothing. We know we are looking for a man."</s>VIENNA - Three people were seriously injured in a knife attack in the Austrian capital Vienna on Wednesday evening, the Austrian Press Agency (APA) quoted a police spokesman as saying.



Mass-circulation daily newspaper Oesterreich said the stabbings occurred in the Leopoldstadt district near Vienna's famous Prater Park. News website heute.at said the victims were a man and two women aged between 40 and 50.



APA said police were searching for a lone assailant who had fled the scene, and that the motive for the attack was not known.



The police were not immediately available for comment.</s>Four people were seriously injured in two knife attacks in one district of the Austrian capital Vienna on Wednesday evening but any motive or connection between the assaults was unclear, a police spokesman said.

The stabbings - the first of which took place at 6.45pm (GMT), occurred in Vienna's Second District, which includes the famous Prater park as well as the Praterstern transport hub. It also houses much of Vienna's small Jewish community.

"A man attacked a family - a father, a mother and their 17-year-old daughter - with a knife. The three people were seriously injured and their lives are in danger," the spokesman said.

"And half an hour later there was another attack ... at Praterstern and here a person was also seriously injured and their life is in danger. We do not know to what extent there is a connection here and any motive remains unclear," he said.

Witness Silvia Franke said she was about 100 metres away when the incident happened.

"I saw how someone in the middle of the street was screaming and shouting - I thought he was beating his dog judging from his hand movements," she said. "And in reality he was stabbing this man."

"He could have stabbed me as well had I been there by chance," Franke said. "He had lost all control."

Another knife attack shortly afterwards in the same area seriously wounded a 20-year-old Chechen, Mr Maierhofer said, adding a male with Afghan nationality had been arrested.

Officers were investigating whether the two attacks are linked.

Vienna has not experienced deadly attacks by Islamist militant like the ones that have struck Paris, Berlin and Brussels since 2015.</s>VIENNA: Four people were seriously wounded in two knife attacks in a district of the Austrian capital, Vienna, on Wednesday evening, but a motive or any connection between the assaults was unclear, a police spokesman said.

The stabbings — the first of which took place at 7:45pm (1845 GMT) — occurred in Vienna’s Second District, which includes the famous Prater park as well as the Praterstern transport hub. It also houses much of Vienna’s small Jewish community.

“A man attacked a family — a father, a mother and their 17-year-old daughter — with a knife. The three people were seriously injured and their lives are in danger,” the spokesman said, adding later that they were Austrian citizens.

“And half an hour later, there was another attack ... at Praterstern and here a person was also seriously injured and their life is in danger. We do not know to what extent there is a connection here and any motive remains unclear,” he said.

Asked what was known about an assailant, he added: “Absolutely nothing. We know we are looking for a man.”

A male citizen of Afghanistan was later arrested in connection with the second assault, but no further details were immediately available and any connection between the stabbings remained unclear, the spokesman said shortly afterward.

Vienna has not experienced deadly attacks by religious extremists like the ones that have struck Paris, Berlin and Brussels since 2015.</s>Four people were seriously injured in two knife attacks in one district of the Austrian capital Vienna on Wednesday evening but any motive or connection between the assaults was unclear, a police spokesman said.

The stabbings - the first of which took place at 7:45 p.m., occurred in Vienna's Second District, which includes the famous Prater park as well as the Praterstern transport hub. It also houses much of Vienna's small Jewish community.

"A man attacked a family - a father, a mother and their 17-year-old daughter - with a knife. The three people were seriously injured and their lives are in danger," the spokesman said.

"And half an hour later there was another attack ... at Praterstern and here a person was also seriously injured and their life is in danger. We do not know to what extent there is a connection here and any motive remains unclear," he said.

Asked what was known about an assailant, he added:"Absolutely nothing. We know we are looking for a man."

Vienna has not experienced deadly attacks by Islamist militant like the ones that have struck Paris, Berlin and Brussels since 2015.</s>At least four people were seriously injured Wednesday following two knife stabbing incidents in a central district of Vienna while a suspect in one of the two attacks was arrested but his motive remains unknown, according to Austrian police.

Vienna police spokesperson Patrick Maierhofer said that it was unclear whether the attacks were perpetrated by the same person and that the police has yet to identify the reasons behind the assaults.</s>Four people have been seriously injured in two separate attacks in the Austrian capital Vienna. At least one of the assailants, whose motives remain unknown, is still on the run.The first incident took place near the Austrian capital's famous Prater Park around 19:45 local time (18:45 GMT) when a man suddenlywith a folding knife in front of a Japanese restaurant on Praterstrasse. The three victims were a couple and their teenage daughter."A man attacked a family - a father, a mother and their 17-year-old daughter - with a knife. The three people were seriously injured and their lives are in danger," a police spokesman told Reuters.The assailant was shouting at his victims before stabbing them, witnesses to the attack recalled Silvia Franke told Austria's Kurier newspaper.After stabbing the Austrian family, the perpetrator immediately fled the scene of the crime, shouting at and threatening people along his way.Authorities deployed a number of ambulances and a Special Forces unit to track the suspect. Amid the ongoing operation and an active manhunt, another stabbing was reported nearby."Half an hour later there was another attack .... at Praterstern," the police spokesman said. "Here a person was also seriously injured and their life is in danger."While police continue to look into a possible connection between the two incidents,Police on Twitter confirmed the "arrest" of the second attacker, stating that a possible connection to an earlier attack is a "subject of the investigation.""We do not know to what extent there is a connection here and any motive remains unclear," the city's police spokesman noted.The search for the culprit of the first attack is in full swing. The manhunt, however, is complicated by the fact that police know "absolutely nothing" about the attacker. "We know we are looking for a man," police said. The motive for the attack is currently unknown.</s>Vienna: Several people have been injured in a knife attack in Vienna.

News website heute.at said a man with a knife randomly attacked pedestrians near the capital's Prater park on Wednesday evening, local time.

Citing a police spokesman, the Austria Press Agency reported three people were seriously injured and police were still searching for the attacker.

More to come</s>Four people were seriously injured Wednesday in two knife attacks in Vienna, Austrian police said.

The stabbings occurred in the Leopoldstadt district near Vienna's famous Prater Park. The attacker fled the scene, and a manhunt was underway.

In the first attack, a man with a knife stabbed a couple and their daughter outside a restaurant, police said. "The three persons suffered heavy to life-threatening injuries and are currently in a hospital,'' police spokesman Patrick Maierhofer said.

A few minutes later, a fourth person was attacked nearby. Police said they were trying to determine whether the two incidents were linked. That victim also had life-threatening injuries.

Police said they knew "absolutely nothing" about the suspect, except that they were searching for a male.
Two connected stabbings occurred in Vienna, Austria: three people were seriously injured outside a Japanese restaurant, and one man in a later stabbing. The perpetrator was arrested.