Pictured: Washington couple Jay Austin and Lauren Geoghegan, who were killed in a terror attack in Tajikistan on Sunday The two Americans killed in a terror attack in Tajikistan have been identified as avid bicyclers Jay Austin and Lauren Geoghegan. The Washington DC couple, who decided last year to leave their jobs and travel around the globe on bikes instead, were remembered as warm-hearted, adventurous and 'larger than life'. On Sunday, they and two other cyclists were killed when a driver allegedly rammed his car into them and joined his passengers in going after the cyclists with knives. A Daewoo sedan plowed into a group of seven foreign bicyclists about 60 miles south of the Tajik capital, Dushanbe, on Sunday, according to local police. The people in the vehicle then 'exited the car and stabbed the cyclists with knives,' the U.S. Embassy in Tajikistan said in a statement Monday. One of the other two people killed was 56-year-old Amsterdam man René Wokke, whose girlfriend Kim Postma, 58, is seriously injured in the hospital. Local reports claim Wokke was an experienced cyclist who had taken his bike through 130 countries, and that the couple had chosen Tajikistan as they felt some neighboring countries were too dangerous. Swiss couple Markus Hummel, 62, and Marie-Claire Diemand​, 59, were also cycling with the group when they were ambushed . Hummel was killed in the attack, while Diemand was hospitalized with injuries. Scroll down for video Jay Austin, 29, had worked at the Department of Housing and Urban Development for seven years and his girlfriend at Georgetown University before the couple took off in July 2017 on their trip of a lifetime Tajik officials say one half of the couple is from Sweden and the other from the Netherlands. Another cyclist with the group, a French citizen, escaped without injury and had been questioned by police. A woman from Switzerland was also injured. Lauren's aunt shared her grief with Facebook friends on Monday, and encouraged them to visit the couple's website to best honor their memories. 'On Sunday my beautiful and beloved niece Lauren Geoghegan, 29, and her amazing boyfriend, Jay Austin, were tragically killed while adventure cycling in Tajikistan,' she wrote. 'They were the target of a horrific terrorist attack. 'There are no words. Our family is shocked and devastated by this senseless loss. 'Lauren and Jay chronicled their journey and experiences with fabulous photographs and captivating blogs. In tribute to them, I invite you to visit their website so that we can remember them for the dream they were outrageously living out and not the way they died. 'Thanks for your prayers at this time. We need them.' Austin and Geoghegan were remembered friends as kind and happy, while family mourned the beloved and gentle couple A fellow bicyclist who had met the couple on their trip and only parted ways with them a few days before they were killed said she and her cycling group would 'forever be inspired by their kindness and open mindedness and their happiness for the good and simple things'. Geoghegan and Austin hauntingly predicted their biggest risk would come from humans in cars - but they had not prepared for the shock attack that took their lives and two others Jay's mother, Jeanne Santovasco, told The Washington Post her son was: 'just a gentle soul, who cared about the world, not leaving any footprint and leaving it a better place'. Austin had worked at the Department of Housing and Urban Development for seven years before he took off on his bike ride in July 2017. Geoghegan worked as a senior admissions officer at Georgetown University before she agreed to join her boyfriend on the trip of a lifetime. Hauntingly, their blog had addressed the idea they could be killed on their trip. In a Q&A segment, the couple noted: 'Relatively speaking, bike touring is really safe'. 'Despite what the news would have you believe, the world is a really wonderful, caring place, and stories of kidnapped travelers or mauled cyclists are the rare exception, not the norm.' The attack took place in the district of Danghara in Tajikistan, 90 miles south of the capital Dushanbe One of the other two people killed was 56-year-old Amsterdam man René Wokke (pictured), whose girlfriend Kim Postma, 58, is seriously injured in the hospital While Austin and Geoghegan admitted they could be harmed, they said they were prepared for dangerous diseases and angry wildlife - and were hoping no human would stand in the way of their dream trip, especially a human in a car. 'The greatest danger to us—any of us, really—are humans in cars, who kill more people than anything else in the world,' they wrote. 'We keep an eye on news reports, monitor trends, and choose routes that minimize risk, but don't avoid it altogether (as, obviously, that's impossible). 'Life is almost always boring and uneventful in almost all places, and so we're not ruling out entire nations simply because something once happened there or because our government and that country's government don't get along so well.' Security forces killed four suspected attackers on Monday and detained one. Safarov Zafarjon Jumayevich, 19, is one of four suspects detained in the alleged attack One of those originally on the wanted list and then reported killed included Asomiddin Madzhidov (pictured) Among the dead suspects was 21-year-old Jafariddin Yusufov, the owner of the Daewoo Leganza car that struck the tourists on Sunday afternoon, local officials said. Jafariddin Yusufov, a suspect in the case and the owner of the Daewoo Leganza that struck the tourists, was killed '(The suspects) had knives and firearms,' said interior minister Ramazon Hamro Rahimzoda, adding that two other cyclists, Swiss and Dutch nationals, were injured and hospitalised. 'One tourist received a knife wound and is being given medical assistance. The victim's condition is stable,' said Rahimzoda, without mentioning a nationality. Islamic State released a video on Tuesday purportedly showing attackers pledging allegiance to the militant group before killing four Western tourists in a knife and car-ramming attack in Tajikistan. The terror group sought to bolster its claim of responsibility for an attack which killed four Western tourists including two Americans on Sunday. In a statement, ISIS said that a 'detachment from the soldiers of the Caliphate' had carried out the attack against 'citizens of Crusader coalition countries,' according to intelligence monitor SITE. Islamic State released a video on Tuesday purportedly showing attackers pledging allegiance to the militant group before killing four Western tourists in Tajikistan On Tuesday, an ISIS outlet published a video of five men pledging allegiance to its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. The men, who speak Russian, sit under a black Islamic State flag and refer to each other by Arab names. Some of them appear similar to the suspects whose photographs have been published by Tajikistan's interior ministry. But the Tajik government has accused a banned Islamist opposition party of being behind the attack. The Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan (IRPT) party's exiled leaders denied any link to the attack and said the authorities were using the incident for political purposes.<doc-sep>The family of one of the victims has confirmed their identities. An American couple planned to spend a year cycling around the world together but their journey came to a tragic end when they were killed in an attack in Tajikistan, with ISIS allegedly claiming responsibility. Lauren Geoghegan and her partner Jay Austin were the two Americans killed on July 29, according to a statement from her family. "The yearlong bicycle adventure Lauren and her partner, Jay Austin, were enjoying was typical of her enthusiastic embrace of life’s opportunities, her openness to new people and places, and her quest for a better understanding of the world," her parents Robert and Elvira Geoghegan said in the statement. Geoghegan, 29, was a graduate of Georgetown University and worked at the school's office of admissions, according to the family's statement. Charles Deacon, the dean of admissions at Georgetown, released a statement of condolences. "We are heartbroken to hear of Lauren’s passing in this devastating tragedy and have expressed our deepest condolences to her family. Lauren was a valued colleague and dear friend to many at Georgetown and an overall treasured member of our community," Deacon said in a statement to ABC News. According to a website that she and Austin, 29, kept to track their bike journey, they both quit their jobs before launching on the adventure. Austin wrote in one blog post that he worked at the Department of Housing and Urban Development. At the time of their deaths, their adventure had taken them to three continents. "We're comfortable just pedaling where the winds and the world and our own hearts take us," Geoghegan and Austin wrote on the website they created to track their journey. Their journey began in South Africa in July 2017, biking for five months to Dar es Salaam. From there, they flew to Morocco, journeyed to Spain and then biked from there through Europe to Istanbul. They flew from Almaty, Kazakhtan, in May and biked through that country before crossing into Tajikistan. They had plans to head across Asia "and we'll maybe even dip down into Australia" before making the trip home, with no firm end date listed on the site. The family thanked the U.S. Embassy in the capital city of Dushanbe "for their capable and compassionate assistance to our family at this difficult time." The embassy released a statement about the July 29 attack, reporting that "Tajik citizens hit seven foreign cyclists with their vehicle, exited the car, and stabbed the cyclists with knives." State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert extended their condolences to the families of the victims and acknowledged reports that ISIS had claimed responsibility for the attack but could not confirm the validity of those claims.<doc-sep>
The American couple murdered in an ISIS-claimed car attack in Tajikistan quit their office jobs last year and were in the midst of pursuing their lifelong dream of cycling around the world when they were killed. Jay Austin and Lauren Geoghegan, both 29 and living in Washington, DC, chronicled their adventures on a blog called “Simply Cycling” where they wrote that they’d decided to take on the globe on two wheels, “because life is short and the world is big and we want to make the most of our youth and good health before they’re gone.” Before embarking on the trip, New York-born Austin worked in the Department of Housing and Urban Development for seven years, his mother, Jeanne Santovasco, told The Washington Post. “He was just a gentle soul who cared about the world and not leaving any footprint and leaving it a better place,” she said in an interview on Tuesday. In 2012, Austin was the subject of a video for Reason.com about the 145-square-foot tiny house he built and lived in. His girlfriend, Geoghegan, grew up in California and graduated from Georgetown in 2010 and worked in the school’s admissions office until taking off on her whirlwind trip with Austin. Her parents, Robert and Elvira Geoghegan, said in a statement that her trip “was typical of her enthusiastic embrace of life’s opportunities, her openness to new people and places and her quest for a better understanding of the world.” On their blog, they described the kindness and generosity of people they encountered in Africa, Europe and Asia — but also some tough days. “Badness exists, sure, but even that’s quite rare. By and large, humans are kind. Self-interested sometimes, myopic sometimes, but kind. Generous and wonderful and kind. No greater revelation has come from our journey than this,” Austin wrote. The slain couple had planned to continue traveling for another year “or two or three,” they’d written. “But only if we’re enjoying it.” “For them to be in this one place where they decided to kill people is unfathomable to us,” said Austin’s mother. About a week ago the pair had posted on Instagram about Tajikistan being a tough place to cycle. “It’s cold and windy and mountainous,” Austin wrote, adding that Geoghegan had caught a nasty stomach bug and was having difficulty biking Then on Sunday, assailants rammed a car into cyclists in the countryside south of the capital, Dushanbe, before pouncing on them with knives. Rene Wokke from the Netherlands and Markus Hummel from Switzerland were also killed. The Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack, which would make it the terror group’s first in former Soviet Central Asia. But authorities in Tajikistan didn’t accept the claim, blaming the attack on a banned political party instead. A US State Department spokesman condemned the “senseless attack on civilian cyclists,” adding that Washington was ready to assist with an investigation. The US Embassy in Dushanbe are welcoming visitors to sign a condolence book for the couple, it wrote on Facebook. “We’ll be forever be inspired by their kindness and open mindedness and their happiness,” one cyclist wrote in the book.