Austrian police arrest 15 over wave of LGBTQ hate attacks

Austrian investigators on Friday said they had arrested 15 people in connection with a wave of hate crime attacks against LGBTQ people.

The 12 men and three women are accused of creating fake dating platform accounts to lure LGBTQ people to locations where they were attacked.

What did Austrian police say about the attacks?

Criminal investigator Michael Lohnegger said the alleged perpetrators had tricked at least 17 people into going to remote locations.

Once there, several masked individuals attacked the victims, with the assaults filmed and uploaded to groups online. 

Investigators said the suspects had falsely accused their victims of being pedophiles.

"None of the victims is a pedophile," said Joachim Huber, deputy police chief of the state of Styria.

The suspects are between the ages of 14 and 26 and included 11 Austrians, a German citizen, a Croatian, a Romanian and a Slovakian citizen, according to authorities.

Investigators said they assumed the number of victims was much higher than the reported figures. During house raids, officers were said to have recovered weapons and Nazi memorabilia.

Over 400 police officers and criminal investigators carried out the raids at 23 locations in seven Austrian provinces Friday.

Edited by Sean Sinico