Austria launches nationwide anti-terrorism raids

Vienna, Sep 12 (IANS) Austrian security authorities said on Thursday that they conducted nationwide anti-terrorism raids on Tuesday night targetting 72 alleged extremists.

The Austrian Directorate of State Security and Intelligence (DSN) said in a statement that Tuesday's raids involved house searches, operations at several prisons, interrogations of suspects, and the seizure of mobile phones and other digital devices to gather evidence of radical Islamist propaganda, according to the statement.

The raids were coordinated by the DSN in collaboration with security authorities across all nine federal states of Austria, Xinhua news agency reported.

Austria's Interior Minister Gerhard Karner said on Thursday that the country's security forces are taking "consistent, sustainable and vigorous actions" against Islamist extremism.

Tuesday's raids came a month after Austrian security authorities foiled a plot to attack Taylor Swift's concerts in Vienna, which were subsequently canceled due to security concerns.

"The past few weeks in particular have shown how necessary close and intensive cooperation between law enforcement authorities is," said Franz Ruf, the public security director of Austria's interior ministry. "We are sending a clear message: we are opposing extremism and terrorism together, consistently and purposefully."

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