Police in the state of Lower Austria are still trying to identify. The children, aged between 7 months and 5 years.
BERLIN – Austrian police said Monday they had arrested a 54-year-old man. After he attacked two social workers with pepper spray. After they found him living illegally with a woman. And six children in a private wine cellar in northeastern Austria.
Police in the Austrian province. Of Lower Austria are still trying to identify the six children. Aged 7 months to 5 years.
Neighbors in Obritz, a small town near the Czech border. Alerted local authorities last week. That a family was living illegally in a local wine cellar.
“Residents sometimes hear children’s voices in the basement.” The city’s vice-mayor Erich Grill told Austrian broadcaster ORF. “It calmed down as [local residents] approached.”
When two social workers came to check on the children last Thursday. Police said the man attacked them with pepper spray and barricaded the cellar door.
Social workers called the police, who arrived at the scene and arrested the man. When police searched the cellar. They found a woman and six children, believed to be the man’s partner and children.
Police also recovered several weapons, including a gun, crossbow and compressed air weapon. According to the police, the person said that the children were born in England. Police said they are not officially registered in Austria. And are working to confirm the identities of the children.
The children were taken to a nearby hospital. And were not neglected or harmed, a police spokesman said. They are now in the custody of social services.
Local media reported that the man was a follower of the. so-called Reichsberger or Reich Citizens movement. Right-wing extremist conspiracy groups believe that the division of Germany by the Allies. After World War II and the next democratic states were illegitimate. instead arguing that the original Reich still exists.
A Lower Austrian police spokeswoman. would not confirm the man’s affiliation with the Reich Nationals.
