By Staff Staff Reporter
Austrian authorities were on Saturday investigating the killings of five women in the capital Vienna within a single day, including three found brutally stabbed to death in a brothel.
The bodies of three young women were found with fatal knife wounds in a brothel in Vienna’s underprivileged Brigittenau district on Friday night after a witness alerted police.
A 27-year-old man still carrying a knife that was believed to be the murder weapon was arrested nearby on suspicion of committing the murders, police said Saturday.
No motive has been given for the killings with the suspect still being questioned, Austrian press agency APA reported.
In a separate case, a mother and her 13-year-old daughter had been found dead in a Vienna apartment earlier Friday.
They were possibly strangled or choked to death, with the father a prime suspect, APA said.
Austria’s association of autonomous women’s shelters recorded 26 femicides last year and debate has raged in Austria and across Europe over the murder of women and girls, often at the hands of partners or ex-partners.
The Austrian government has vowed to crack down, pledging several measures including increased funding for organisations helping victims of violence.
