The Church of Maria Immaculata © Wikipedia
The Austrian capital has been rocked by an unprecedentedly brazen burglary as two suspects stormed a monastery church in the northern part of Vienna and robbed it while leaving about a dozen of monks injured.
The crime took place in broad daylight as the perpetrators broke into the Church of Maria Immaculata in Vienna’s district of Floridsdorf around 13:30 local time(12:30 GMT), police said in a statement.
The robbery lasted for hours, the statement said, adding that the police found “tied and partially heavily injured” monks only three hours later.
#aktuell läuft in #Strebersdorf ein polizeilicher Großeinsatz. Wir sind dort verstärkt vor Ort und sperren derzeit das Gebiet #Langenzersdorferstraße#AntonBöckgasse#Krottenhofgasse großräumig ab. Bitte meiden Sie den Sperrbereich und lassen Sie unsere Kollegen vor Ort arbeiten
— POLIZEI WIEN (@LPDWien) December 27, 2018
Gegen 13.30 überfielen derzeit 2 unbekannte Täter mehrere Ordensbrüder in der Klosterkirche Maria Immaculata in #Strebersdorf. Die Tat streckte sich über mehrere Stunden, gegen 16:17 Uhr entdeckten unsere KollegInnen die gefesselten und teils schwer verletzen Opfer.
— POLIZEI WIEN (@LPDWien) December 27, 2018
A large-scale manhunt was launched following the incident as large police forces were deployed to the scene and the area around the church was cordoned off. The officers also asked the locals to avoid the area and “let their colleagues to do their job.”
In a follow-up statement, the police said that at least one of the attackers “demanded valuables and cash” from the monks. The investigators also said they are not treating the incident as a terrorist attack while saying that the exact motives behind the robbery are “still unclear.”
Subscribe to RT newsletter to get stories the mainstream media won’t tell you.