Austrian Officials Say Syrian Accused of Killing Schoolboy Was Radicalized on TikTok

Police officers stand guard at the scene where a 14-year-old boy was killed and several others were wounded in a stabbing attack, in Villach, Austria, on Feb. 16, 2025. Borut Zivulovic/Reuters

A 23-year-old Syrian who is accused of stabbing a 14-year-old boy to death and wounding five other people in the Austrian town of Villach had been radicalized on TikTok, officials said on Monday.

They said the suspect, who under Austrian law can only be identified as Ahmad G., was found to have an ISIS flag in his apartment after his arrest but he had not previously come to the attention of the authorities.

The schoolboy, identified on social media as Alex, was attacked in broad daylight in the center of Villach, a town in southern Austria close to the border with Slovenia.

A spokesman for the prosecutors’ office in the nearby city of Klagenfurt, which is handling the investigation, said, “He radicalized himself within three months, not through any other person, personal contact either online or in person.”

Suspect ‘Just Consumed Videos’

“Evidently, he really just consumed videos and decided to commit this act. There was no other person who said ‘Do it!’. He himself confirms it and says he watched videos and then decided he wanted to join IS [ISIS],” he added.

Social media platforms like TikTok have been accused of using algorithms which feed some users’ unhealthy obsessions, such as extremist Islamist propaganda.

TikTok, in a 2022 post on its website, said it was committed to finding solutions and working with, “civil society on combating violent extremism.”

TikTok has also previously been accused of allowing adverts by Albanian people traffickers who were recruiting illegal immigrants, especially for journeys across the English Channel to Britain.

In 2023 Austria banned TikTok from government employees’ phones over security concerns.

A photograph of the suspect was widely circulated on social media, showing him sitting in the street apparently laughing or smiling as an armed police officer approached him just moments after the attack.

Two 15-year-old boys and three men aged 28, 32, and 36 were also injured in the attack. Two were seriously wounded.

Police said the Villach suspect used a folding knife in the attack, and recorded himself swearing allegiance to ISIS, adding his aim was to be shot dead by the police after the attack. But he was arrested within minutes.

The governor of the Austrian province of Carinthia, Peter Kaiser, thanked a 42-year-old Syrian immigrant, who worked for a food delivery company, who drove his vehicle toward the suspect during the attack.

Kaiser said, “This shows how closely terrorist evil but also human good can be united in one and the same nationality.”

But Herbert Kickl, whose Freedom Party (FPO) won a national election in September running on an anti-immigration platform, called for “a rigorous crackdown on asylum” in the wake of the attack.

Despite coming first, the Euroskeptic, anti-immigration FPO was only tasked with beginning talks last month after Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen gave the outgoing chancellor, Karl Nehammer, the first chance to form a new government.

Politicians Argue Over Interior Ministry

Talks to form a new government in Austria failed last week after the FPO and the conservative People’s Party were unable to agree on who would oversee the Interior Ministry, which oversees policing and border control.

The Klagenfurt prosecutors’ office said Ahmad G. had arrived in Austria in 2019, and wanted to travel on to Germany using fake identification papers.

A spokesman for Austria’s Interior Ministry said the suspect spent four days in custody in Germany in May 2024 for falsifying a document and then being unable to pay the fine.

Sunday’s incident in Villach happened just three days after a 24-year-old Afghan immigrant drove into a crowd in the German city of Munich, killing two people and injuring dozens.

The lead prosecutor in Munich, Gabriele Tilmann, has said there appeared to be an Islamist motivation.

Voters in Germany go to the polls on Feb. 23, with immigration having become a leading issue, along with the parlous state of the economy.

The Epoch Times has contacted TikTok for a comment but has so far not received a response.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.