An area of the Jewish cemetery in Vienna dawns burned and with swastikas

The Jewish cemetery in Vienna, the capital of Austria, was the target of an attack perpetrated by unknown persons who set fire to a ceremonial hall and painted swastikas on the walls of the premises, as reported this Wednesday by the municipal authorities, as well as the Jewish Community of Vienna ( IKG).

In a statement, the press service of the City of Vienna explained that firefighters received a fire alert at 08:00 local time (06:00 GMT) today in the Central Cemetery, where the Jew is located.

“It turned out that during the night a fire had broken out in a part of the ceremony room in the Jewish part of the cemetery,” the note states.. He adds that the fire was almost extinguished when the firefighters arrived, who put out the embers. The cause is being investigated by the police, the statement concludes.

“The anteroom of the ceremonial hall was burned,” the president of the IKG, Oskar Deutsch, also reported on X (formerly Twitter).

“Swastikas were painted on the exterior walls (of the building). No one was injured. “Firefighters and police are investigating,” the brief message added.

“I hope that the perpetrators will be identified quickly,” wrote Austria's federal chancellor, the conservative Karl Nehammer, after “strongly condemning the attack on the Jewish cemetery in Vienna.”

“Anti-Semitism has no place in our society and will be fought with all political and legal means,” added the head of Government in a brief statement also published in X.

As in other countries, Austria has seen a sharp increase in anti-Semitic incidents since the terrorist attack against Israel perpetrated by the Islamist group Hamas on October 7, in which 1,400 people were murdered and more than 200 kidnapped.

Israel reacted by declaring war on Hamas, with intense bombings and army incursions into the Gaza Strip that, according to Gaza authorities, have so far caused more than 8,000 deaths.