A man who drove his car towards pedestrians in Vienna while shouting “Allahu Akbar” was merely singing along to rap music on a trip to buy pizza, his parents have said.
Police have arrested the 21-year-old driver, named as Ibrahim C, on suspicion of attempting to run down shoppers in a possible terror attack on 29 September.
Witnesses said passers-by leaped out the way as his Peugeot ploughed towards a pedestrianised zone of the Austrian capital’s Favoriten district.
A spokesperson for Vienna Police said Ibrahim had attempted to run down passers-by while shouting “Allahu Akbar”, repeating the Islamic phrase meaning “God is Great” while struggling against officers during his arrest.
Prosecutors said all lines of investigation were open but that a “religious motive could not be excluded”.
“The 21-year-old was not previously known to police,” a spokesperson said. “No link to extremist groups has so far been found.”
In interviews with local media, Ibrahim’s parents have said the episode was a huge misunderstanding, adding that their son was unemployed and had recently been suffering hallucinations after smoking cannabis.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/w...isis-rap-music-singing-cannabis-a7349876.html
