An old acquaintance

“Bomb brain” tracked down: threat from the clinic

October 2: Bomb threat against Salzburg Central Station.

(Bild: Tschepp Markus)

Since September 30, a phantom has kept our authorities on tenterhooks with an eerie series of threatening emails. The State Security Service has now investigated an "old acquaintance" (20) in Switzerland...

The young man had already made headlines on May 22 this year when he threatened the Linz Nietzschestraße police station by telephone: "The whole house will explode in five minutes!" Immediately, 200 people - mainly officers, but also civilians and administrative staff - had to evacuate the building. Investigations by state security then led to the trail of a 20-year-old Swiss national. As it turned out, he had called from the psychiatric clinic where he was being treated!

Large-scale operations, evacuations
Just four months later, a veritable wave of bomb threats by email swept across Austria. Since September 30, there have been large-scale operations with evacuations to train stations, schools and shopping centers. The crime scenes were spread throughout Austria, from Vorarlberg to Burgenland.

Graz Central Station was the first in the eerie series on September 30.

(Bild: Jauschowetz Christian)

The Otto-Glöckel School and Linz Central Station were also targeted by the "bomb brain".

(Bild: Einöder Horst)

October 4: The serial offender also paralyzed the train station in Eisenstadt

(Bild: Judt Reinhard)

There was also a large-scale operation at the school in Keplerstraße in Graz.

(Bild: Jauschowetz Christian)

October 1: Swiss "bomb brain" threatens Linz main station.

(Bild: Martin Scharinger)

On October 7, Salzburg's Europark had to be evacuated.

(Bild: Tschepp Markus)

To date, 27 anonymous written threats have been received. One of them was even "forgotten" in the mailbox of the Tyrol Provincial Police Directorate. Police Director Helmut Tomac spoke of "human error" and the otherwise very conscientious officer was given a verbal lecture.

The investigations by the state security authorities are continuing in order to fully clarify the background.

Ein Sprecher des Innenministeriums

As new investigations by the Directorate of State Security and Intelligence (DSN) together with the Linz and Graz public prosecutor's offices have now revealed, it is not Islamists who are behind this - but once again the 20-year-old, who is also known to the police in our neighboring country, is an urgent suspect!

27 bomb threats

That's how many there have been across the country since September 30. Train stations, schools and shopping centers were affected. Now it's over (for now).

Arrest warrant for mentally ill person without consequences
In any case, the judiciary has issued a European arrest warrant, but he remains at large in Switzerland. What happens now? The Swiss will not extradite their own citizen. This means that he will be tried in a neighboring country. But there will probably be no legal consequences!

Austria will probably be left with the costs
After all, the young serial offender is mentally ill and has been repeatedly treated. The domestic security authorities will also almost certainly be left with the costs of the false alarms. Assuming an hourly rate of around 34 euros per officer, operations of this magnitude quickly run into tens of thousands of euros. Expensive fun.

At the very least, they should make sure that the young man has no access to a computer or cell phone in the psychiatric clinic in Switzerland. Otherwise the next series of threats from the "bomb brain" will soon follow.