Image: APA/ALEXANDER STEININGER
This was confirmed by Erich Habitzl, spokesman for the public prosecutor’s office in Wiener Neustadt, on Wednesday. In the room is still the suspicion of grossly negligent homicide and negligent bodily harm. Previously unknown had been determined, reports ORF Lower Austria.
In the investigation, the role played by the four people in the ball bomb explosion on New Year’s Eve is now being examined. According to Habitzl, the accused have not yet been questioned, and an order to this effect has now been sent to the criminal police. In addition, evaluations of seized cell phones are still pending. A final report from the police is expected “in the next few weeks,” said the spokesman for the authorities.
Several locals detonated ball bombs shortly before 0.30 a.m. on New Year’s Eve in a field in St. Johann am Steinfelde, a cadastral municipality of Ternitz. An 18-year-old is said to have been in the immediate vicinity of the fireworks when the explosion took place, which cost the young man his life. A person of the same age was flown to a hospital in Graz by the emergency helicopter with serious injuries.
A 17-year-old and another 18-year-old were immediately taken to the Wiener Neustadt state hospital with injuries. The older of the two succumbed to his injuries a few days after the incident. The ball bombs used were probably category F4 fireworks, which had been bought illegally in the Czech Republic.
Source: Nachrichten
