Two young Austrians have been hailed for their courage following the deadly gun attack in the capital, Vienna, after footage of them intervening to aid wounded people including a policeman spread across social media.
A video shot from a nearby building shows the pair running to a metro station exit and helping panicked passers-by to take cover as gunshots were still echoing down the street.
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On Tuesday the interior ministry confirmed, without naming the two friends, that they had helped during the attack late on Monday carried out by a radicalised young man from North Macedonia.
The assailant killed four people before being shot dead by police.
Mikail Ozen and Recep Tayyip Gultekin, both Austrian citizens from Turkish backgrounds, had planned to “drink a last coffee” together at bustling Schwedenplatz before the country’s coronavirus lockdown came into effect, they said in a video posted online immediately after the attack.
The first shots could be heard even as they arrived at the busy square by the river to find “people lying on the ground covered in blood”, Ozen recalled.
They went to help a panicked older woman who was looking for a place to hide – only to see a wounded policeman lying on the ground.
“We couldn’t act as if we hadn’t seen him,” Ozen said. “We ran and carried him to the ambulance” by supporting him under his shoulders as the gunfire continued.
The two semi-professional martial arts practitioners issued an appeal for unity between “Jews, Christians and Muslims” that was picked up by many Austrian media outlets.
“We’re Muslims of Turkish origin, we hate any kind of terrorism. We’re with Austria, with Vienna, we respect Austria,” they said.
Turkish media reported that President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan had called the pair to congratulate them.
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