Halloween: Vienna police and rescue teams increased their forces

The Vienna police will be on duty with additional civilian and uniformed forces for the upcoming Halloween night. The state police department explained this upon request. “Since an increased number of people in public places is to be expected due to Halloween, the presence is also increased,” said spokeswoman Julia Schick. It was also emphasized that the executive would take consistent action against any rioters or people prone to violence.

In Upper Austria, too, the executive branch is – as reported – on alert after last year’s riots. In the state capital, but also in all other districts, the number of police forces is being increased.

• Also read: Police in large-scale Halloween operation: “So far no evidence of riots”

The police pointed out on Tuesday that “supposedly harmless pranks, such as daubing house walls or destroying objects, especially through pyrotechnics,” are always damage to property. If there are any violations of the law, we want to take strict action.

According to the State Police Directorate, in addition to the patrol service, officers from the special units Cobra and WEGA as well as the service dog unit, the alien police and the Office for the Protection of the Constitution will ensure the maintenance of “public peace, order and security”. The focus is on possible violations of the Pyrotechnics Act.

• More on the subject: The Interior Minister wants to take “consistent and robust” action on Halloween

Social media monitoring

Schick also emphasized that, as usual, social media is also monitored on large-scale operations. The role of social media became the focus of public debate after the Halloween riots in Linz in 2022. At that time, a young person posted a video that fueled the riots. Parallels were drawn to a film that deals with street battles and police violence in the French suburbs.

The State Police Directorate also emphasized that the currently increased terror alert level was also taken into account in the planning of today’s operation. “The currently increased police protection in public spaces will also be maintained on Halloween,” said Schick.

Fire brigade is “sensitized”

The fire department explained that no additional team had been brought into service yet, but that the dispatchers in the control center were sensitized. “If more reports of certain events come in, they will be passed on immediately and we can react,” said spokesman Jürgen Figerl. “We also have fixed concepts in place for all cases.” However, the situation remained calm until late afternoon, it was said around 4 p.m.

Professional rescue increased

The Vienna professional rescue service has increased its forces for tonight. “Due to our experience over the last few years, we are using more vehicles – especially on night duty,” said Daniel Steiner from the professional rescue press office.

On the occasion of Halloween night, the rescuers also released a video in the style of a horror film, which is intended to draw attention to the problems of emergency calls due to trivial items. “We want people to get help. But not every health emergency is a case for emergency rescue,” it said.

It happens again and again that the emergency number is called because of something trivial. The campaign video therefore also refers to situations from the past: Needles stuck in heads, fingernails caught in the eye or incorrectly used nasal douches are generally not a case for emergency calls, according to the tenor of the video. “Operations that do not represent an indication for emergency rescue are always an issue for us, but on days with increased frequency of operations, such as Halloween, this obviously makes things more difficult,” said Steiner.

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