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Authorities on Tuesday said, the man who was shot dead after the weekend after attacking a soldier with a knife outside the Iranian ambassador's residence in Vienna had Islamist sympathies.

Michaela Kardeis, head of public security, told a news conference in Vienna that the 26 year old Austrian of Egyptian origin clearly had sympathies with political Islam based on preliminary indications. 

Kardeis said further analysis of material seized at his home and his social media activities, details of his background and possible motive behind his attack is not known.

 

During his Austrian military service in 2012, the defence ministry said the man was registered as a devout Muslim, giving him the right to pray five times a day and grow a beard. 

The Kurier newspaper reported that the man followed the German Salafist preacher Pierre Vogel and was a fan of a group that agitated for the "release of Sunni prisoners in Iran", on Facebook.

Police said on Monday that he may also have had mental health problems.