Defense Minister Klaudia Tanner (ÖVP) on Tuesday praised the four army soldiers who were shot at by a smuggler on Monday at the Hungarian border. “Something like this has never happened before that Austrian soldiers were shot at,” said Tanner at the Nickelsdorf border crossing. Such an act is “another level of criminal energy”.
The minister presented each of the three militia soldiers and the sergeant from Jäger Battalion 17 with a personal recognition medal as a thank you. As far as the security of the soldiers on duty at the border is concerned in the future, the situation will be evaluated in light of this incident, Tanner told APA. This affects, for example, operational tactics, protective equipment or structural measures. The self-protection of the soldiers comes first, said the minister.
Soldiers wanted to check the vehicle with Hungarian license plates at the border crossing at Bildein (Güssing district) early Monday morning, but the driver stepped on the gas. The car was being followed on a dirt road before going off the road. A suspect then ran away in the direction of Hungary and shot the members of the armed forces twice from Hungarian territory. They were unharmed, as were the twelve refugees who were in the large van. One of the traffickers, a 22-year-old Moldovan, was caught; the shooter, a 26-year-old Moldovan, is wanted. According to the police, it is still unclear whether it was a live weapon or a stun gun.