PRAGUE (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 04th November, 2020) Police in Slovakia informed colleagues in Austria back in the summer about an attempted purchase of weapons by suspicious Austrian citizens, Denisa Bardyova, a spokeswoman for the Presidium of the Slovak Police Force, said on Wednesday.
On Tuesday, Austrian media reported, citing police sources, that the gunman behind the shooting attacks in Vienna had visited Slovakia in mid-July where he purchased cartridges for his Kalashnikov AK-47 assault riffle. Slovak arms experts, in turn, have claimed that the Vienna attacker was armed with a Zastava M70 rifle rather than a Kalashnikov.
"The Slovak police received information in the summer that suspicious persons from Austria were trying to buy ammunition in our territory. The purchase was prevented. This information was passed on to the Austrian colleagues. We cannot give more information on this topic so as not to harm the investigation underway in Austria," Bardyova said in a comment, broadcast by Slovak television.
On Monday night, six different locations in the Austrian capital of Vienna were subjected to shooting attacks, which left five people killed � including the perpetrator � and 17 others injured. Austrian Interior Minister Karl Nehammer said that the attacker was a supporter of the Islamic State terrorist organization (banned in Russia). The attack was recognized as terrorist.
