Austrian knife attack suspect was radicalised on TikTok, officials say

The 23-year-old Syrian refugee believed to have killed a teenager and injured five other people in a weekend stabbing rampage in the Austrian town of Villach became radicalised quickly by using TikTok, officials said on Monday.

The suspect, identified as Ahmad G., had the flag of the Islamic State militant group in his apartment but had not previously attracted Austrian authorities’ attention. The case highlights the challenge of preventing so-called lone wolf attacks, when an attacker acts alone without outside help.

His online radicalisation draws further attention to social media platforms like TikTok that can offer users a large amount of content on subjects of interest, which some experts say can accelerate their immersion in them.

“He radicalised himself within three months,” a spokesman for prosecutors in the nearby city of Klagenfurt, where the investigation is being handled, told Reuters.

Read more: Reuters