Vienna, 18 October 2023 (dpa/MIA) - Austria's security forces have upgraded the terror alert level from elevated to high, amid the ongoing fighting in the Middle East.

Omar Haijawi-Pirchner, the head of the state protection agency DSN said on Wednesday that the conflict between Israel and Hamas militants could lead to the spread of extremist propaganda and further radicalize Islamists in Austria.

However, no current attack plans were known.

The police and the army will now increase their public presence and protect Jewish institutions in particular, Interior Minister Gerhard Karner and Defence Minister Klaudia Tanner announced.

Coordinated attacks on Israel launched by militant Islamist Hamas from the Gaza Strip on October 7 killed about 1,400 people in Israel, the vast majority of them civilians, in what has been described as the worst catastrophe in Israeli history.

Repeated retaliatory Israeli strikes on Gaza, which is ruled by Hamas, have killed more than 3,400 Palestinians so far, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.

Photo: EPA