Out of Corona frustration: Austrian youths wanted to set the police on fire

A.us displeasure with corona controls in Austria, three young people from Linz said they wanted to carry out an arson attack on the police. As the Upper Austrian police reported on Friday, two 16-year-olds and a 20-year-old confessed that they had set fire to a patrol car in mid-November. The three also reported their plan to lure a police officer into an ambush by provocation, dousing it with petrol and setting it on fire.

As a motive, they stated with the investigators that they see the law enforcement officers as opponents because of their controls of the Covid measures. “We assume that they really wanted to, and that they didn’t succeed. That’s why they limited themselves to the police car, “said a police spokesman for the German press agency.

Far-reaching restrictions for unvaccinated people have been in place in Austria for two weeks. Hundreds of additional officers were deployed to ensure compliance. Upper Austria is the federal state with the lowest vaccination rate and one of the highest numbers of infections in the Alpine region.