Vienna shooter identified as 'IS supporter' as Austria mourns

Austrian police said Tuesday that a deadly shooting rampage in Vienna had been carried out by a known Islamic extremist who had spent time in prison, as the country mourned the victims of its first major terror attack in decades.

Four people were killed during the assault on Monday night that saw Kujtim Fejzulai, a 20-year-old described as an Islamic State group sympathiser, open fire with an automatic weapon in a busy area of the historic Austrian capital before being shot dead by police.

Security forces swooped on 18 different addresses, including Fejzulai's home, and made 14 arrests as they looked for possible accomplices and sought to determine if he had acted alone.

After reviewing CCTV footage of the shooting spree, which took place not far from the historic Vienna opera house in an area teeming with people in bars and cafes, Interior Minister Karl Nehammer said the video "does not at this time show any evidence of a second attacker".

He told the APA news agency that the gunman was carrying an automatic weapon, a handgun and a machete and was wearing a fake explosive belt.

In a televised address on the first day of a new national coronavirus lockdown, Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz condemned a "repulsive terror attack" and said the deceased were "an older man, an older woman, a young passer-by and a waitress."

Read: 'We are in shock': Austrian capital Vienna reels after gunman kills at least two

His government will face questions about how an individual known to security forces had been able to buy weapons and cause panic on the streets of the capital, which was packed with people ahead of the lockdown.

The attack came after several Islamist atrocities in France, including an assault on churchgoers in the Mediterranean city of Nice, with security experts warning about the danger posed by jihadist groups and homegrown European extremists.

The recent re-publication of cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed in France have caused new tensions, sparking protests in some Muslim-majority countries and calls from several terror groups for their followers to take vengeance.

Nehammer said Fejzulai had been convicted of a terror offence in April last year for trying to travel to Syria.

The dual Austrian and Macedonian national had then been admitted to a government-funded de-radicalisation programme and had managed to secure an early release from a 22-month prison sentence in December.

"The perpetrator managed to fool the de-radicalisation programme of the justice system, to fool the people in it, and to get an early release through this," Nehammer said.

A large swathe of central Vienna was cordoned off on Tuesday around the location of the shootings.

The president of Vienna's Jewish community Oskar Deutsch said shots had been fired "in the immediate vicinity" of the Stadttempel synagogue, but added that it was currently unknown whether the temple -- closed at the time -- had been the target.

Police officers could be seen combing the ground near the historic Schwedenplatz area looking for evidence.

Read: Vienna terror attack: 3 dead, 15 wounded; gunmen on the run

The small Alpine nation of nine million people had until now been spared the sort of major attacks that have hit other European countries such as France, Germany and Britain in the last decade.

The last significant attacks date back to the 1970s and 1980s and were carried out by pro-Palestinian militants.

The bloodshed triggered an outpouring of solidarity from world leaders with French President Emmanuel Macron saying the French shared the "shock and sorrow" of the Austrian people.

Across the country, flags have been lowered to half-mast on public buildings and people observed a minute of silence at noon as church bells rang out in remembrance.

Kurz, President Van der Bellen and other officials took part in a wreath-laying ceremony in honour of the victims.

A total of 22 people were brought to Vienna hospitals over the course of the night with injuries from the attack, 14 with serious woundes and three in a critical but stable conditon.

Police said an officer was among those hurt.

The first shots were heard at around 8 pm (1900 GMT).

"It sounded like firecrackers, then we realised it was shots," said one witness quoted by public broadcaster ORF.

Another spoke of at least 50 shots being fired as police locked down the area.

"The police came in and said, 'you all have to stay inside because there's a probably a dead man there'," said waiter Jimmy Eroglu, 42, who heard the shooting as the attack unfolded near his restaurant.

Germany joined the Czech Republic in stepping up checks at their borders in order to stop possible accomplices.

"The fight against these assassins and those who instigate them is our common struggle," said Chancellor Angela Merkel.