On Tuesday morning, the Upper Austrian police and the Linz public prosecutor’s office presented further details about the Halloween riots in downtown Linz.
According to regional police director Andreas Pilsl, after 129 interrogations, “a core of 20 people could be filtered out”. Among them were three “ringleaders”: “a 21-year-old Syrian with asylum status, a 17-year-old North Macedonian and a 19-year-old Spaniard”.
Two people are currently detained, according to the spokeswoman for the Linz public prosecutor’s office, Ulrike Breiteneder.
“Specifically, the 21-year-old and the 19-year-old. Both are accused of grievous bodily harm and common endangerment.”
A 17-year-old allegedly responsible for the Tiktok video “Tomorrow Linz will become Athena” – the actual call to participate in the riots – has been charged at large. “At present, however, it cannot be ruled out that further arrests could follow. The investigation is ongoing”, the authorities said.
The Linz Halloween riots
On Halloween evening, October 31st, around 200 took downtown Linz streets on a rampage, damaging storefront windows and attacking unrelated groups of people with stones and even firecrackers.
One thing that draws attention to the episode – other than the unexpected violence – is that many of the people involved were not Austrian citizens. In a country where immigration is always a contentious issue, this issue was bound to make the headlines.
The other point that ensured the riots would stay in the headlines for a while was how they came to happen.
READ MORE: EXPLAINED: What happened at the Linz Halloween riots?
According to the authorities, the initial evaluation is that the event was unorganised and the rioters had no clear structure. Instead, it was more likely “a loose gathering of young people who had joined forces via social media”.
Additionally, most of the participants were young men.
The police are still piecing together everything that happened two days after the riots. On social media, there are calls for further rioting (on New Year’s Eve), and xenophobic and racist comments as well, with many blaming asylum seekers and migrants for the events.
What will happen on New Year’s Eve?
On social media, some young people around Linz had already said they wanted to repeat the riots on New Year’s Eve. A house search in one of the suspects’ homes, the 19-year-old Spanish man, turned up dozens of illegal firework devices.
The police said they were sufficiently prepared for New Year’s Eve. “The entire standby unit will be on duty,” Landespolizeidirektor Andreas Pilsl noted, “we are relying on overlapping forces.”
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At present, he said, 1,246 checks had already been carried out on the northern border to prevent explosive devices from being brought in. This would be stepped up by New Year’s Eve, he added.