Paris attacks update: Two men arrested in Austria

Austrian police have arrested two Frenchmen at a refugee centre in the city of Salzburg. The Frenchmen are suspected to have strong links in the Nov. 13 Paris attacks.

According to Austrian newspapers, both men posed as refugees and are believed to have aided the group that launched the deadly serial attacks on Paris, which claimed the lives of 130 people.

“Two people who arrived from the Middle East were arrested at the weekend in accommodation for refugees on suspicion of belonging to a terrorist group,” Reuters quoted Salzburg prosecutor’s office spokesman Robert Holzleitner as saying on Wednesday. “As part of the preliminary investigation, evidence suggesting a connection with the Paris attacks is being verified,” he added.

A foreign intelligence service provided details that led to assumptions that the men arrested came in contact with the Paris attackers in Austria, as reported by local newspaper Salzburger Nachrichten.

National tabloid Kronen-Zeitung has reported that the two men entered Austria in October, along with the Paris attackers. It stated that the arrestees had fake passports with evidence of travelling from Greece via Balkans into Austria with hundreds of thousands of refugees in the past few months.

Out of the total number of attackers, three were still left to be identified, including two suicide bombers who blew themselves outside the Stade de France stadium. Holzleitner, as well as the foreign ministry, refused to comment on the nationalities of the two men arrested in Austria. However, Kronen-Zeitung reported the details that came from an unspecified foreign intelligence agency, which state that the two men have Algerian and Pakistani roots.

The online news source also stated that the two men were waiting in Salzburg for more orders of attacks. French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said that since the Paris attacks, around 334 people had been arrested. Out of them, 287 were held for interrogation, with the police seizing over 400 weapons so far.

Salah Abdeslam, 26, who is believed to play a key role in the attacks, is still on the run and has been subjected to international arrest warrant.

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