Because of TikTok video

16-year-old threatened to carry out a bomb attack online

On May 15, the police were already dealing with another bomb threat against the Akademisches Gymnasium in Linz and cordoned off parts of the city center.

(Bild: © Harald Dostal / 2024)

The bomb was supposed to go off on June 27 and had been planned for more than a year and a half. An unknown internet user made this threat several times. As it turned out later: The threat came from a 16-year-old from Linz, the reason he gave was a racist TikTok video.

Bomb attack on June 27, 2024 - that was the threat made by an internet user. Investigators were quickly able to find out who was behind it: a 16-year-old teenager from Linz.

The public prosecutor's office issued a search warrant for his home address and the police moved out on Tuesday night. A sigh of relief after the raid: the officers found no dangerous objects.

Anger over video
The young man from Linz initially denied the crime, but eventually made a full confession. According to the police, the 16-year-old - who is now facing charges - gave his anger over a xenophobic video on the social media platform TikTok as the reason. He contacted everyone who posted an approving comment under the clip, insulted several people via chat - and even threatened them with a bomb.

Two more bomb threats
It was not the first bomb threat that recently kept the emergency services in Upper Austria busy: on 15 May, the Akademisches Gymnasium in Linz was evacuated after a bomb threat, but there is no trace of the perpetrator so far.

However, it seems to have been clarified who threatened to blow up the city police station a week later: a young Swiss man is said to have made the threatening call from the psychiatric ward.