Vienna shooting: four dead, including ‘Islamist terrorist’, in Austria attack – live updates | World news

The Vienna Police have just tweeted the following information about what is known so far. They list three people as having died but it is unclear whether the attacker is included among the toll. We will bring you more as soon as we know.

The Vienna police have confirmed that the explosive belt worn by the attacker, who they described as an Islamic State sympathiser, was fake.

In that press conference which ended a moment ago Austrian Interior Minister Karl Nehammer said that the known attacker was an Islamic State sympathiser.

He was armed with an explosive belt which tuned out to be fake and carried a bag of ammunition. He was killed by police.

Nehammer also repeated calls for the public to stay at home on Tuesday.

Florian Klenk, the editor of Austrian news magazine Falter has tweeted that, “Nehammer did everything right in the [press conference]. Emphasize the unity of the country, fundamental rights and democratic principles. No escalation, but calm, empathic words that make it clear to the terrorists that Vienna cannot be divided. Hopefully this rhetoric stays the same.”

Many thanks to my colleague Svetlana Stankovic (Guardian Australia’s deputy opinion editor) for translating that press conference in record time. I’ll have a summary up shortly.

Vienna’s police force has confirmed that three civilians and one attacker have died.

Two of the civilians were male and one was female. The attacker was male. This means the death toll has risen by one since we were last updated.

Ruf and Nehammer are asked whether the attack was definitely antisemitic.

“It is clear that it is a radicalised person, further we can’t say anything as we’re still investigating,” they respond.

Ruf and Nehammer are unable to confirm what was found at the home of the attacker or how hold he was, they say.

The authorities at the press conference are asked whether it is possible there was just one attacker. “At the moment we think there are more, we’re investigating,” Ruf responds.

Another person – I’m afraid I didn’t catch who – adds later, “It’s difficult to say for sure if it was one or several attackers. Lots of witnesses are injured, traumatised. We have to analyse data, have to ask for your understanding that this will take some time. At this stage there is no definite answer.”

Ruf confirms that further police personnel will be supplied to Vienna from other parts of the country.

Ruf adds, “This has showed how important routine police work is. It made sure that the attacker was found quickly. There was a minimal time of chaos and all public areaes could be coordinated.”

“We have started professional investigations we’ll focus on making sure people in Vienna will feel secure again. Thank you to police and all partners who have worked with us in this difficult hours.”

Vienna’s Director General for Public Security Franz Ruf is speaking now. He says, “We have worked intensely on identifying the attacker.”

“The home of the violent attacker was searched. 20,000 video were uploaded and given to us, and we have already searched 20% of this content.” (a note that we didn’t quite catch that percentage figure, but we thing it was 20%).

Nehammer: “Terror and violence definitely have no place in our society. We won’t let our freedom be taken away from us.”

Nehammer has confirmed that the attacker who was killed was “heavily armed with an explosive belt, and were his sympathisers”.

“We have increased checks in public areas.”

“The police have done an outstanding job,” he says. “Even those who were on holidays – a big thank you to them and to other countries for their assistance.”