TEHRAN – Late on Sunday a knife-wielding man attacked residence of Iran’s ambassador to Vienna and was shot dead by police.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Qassemi said on Monday that “the assailant was a 26 years old Austrian citizen whose motives are not clear yet.”

Qassemi added, “We are making contacts with the Austrian officials in Tehran and Vienna and we hope that the Austrian security forces would reach the necessary conclusion through the investigations they have been doing since last night.”

He noted that the incident did not cause any damage to the envoy’s house, however, the guard outside the resident was injured and was transferred to hospital.

According to CNN, the 26-year-old Austrian, who has not been named, “died on the street from his gunshot wounds”, police spokesman Harald Soros said

The guard initially used pepper spray against the assailant, Soros added.

The attack, which occurred at around 11:35 p.m. local time, began after the man confronted the guard on duty. 

“They started a fight because the aggressor was too close and the soldier shot him at least four times with his handgun,” said Soros.

NA/PA