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Vienna shooting 'linked to Balkan mafia': police

Austrian policemen stand guard at the site of a shooting outside Figlmueller passage in the city center of Vienna on December 21, 2018

A shooting which left one man dead and another seriously injured in central Vienna on Friday is thought to be linked to a Balkan mafia goup, police said in a statement Saturday. "At the moment the crime looks as though it is connected to organised crime in the Western Balkans region," the statement said. The shooting, which happened at around 13:30 local time (1230 GMT) on Friday, briefly sparked panic in the historic centre of the Austrian capital, an area popular with tourists. The two victims, aged 32 and 23, were part of a group of three men who were shot at by another man shortly after they left a restaurant. The Montenegrin daily Vijesti named the dead man as Vladimir Roganovic. According to the paper, police considered Roganovic to be an "important member" of one of two drug gangs which since 2014 have been involved in a bitter feud that has left around 30 people dead in Montenegro and Serbia. Local media also reported that Roganovic had been released from prison this month after serving time for bomb attacks against the homes of two prison officials. The shooter in Friday's attack escaped on foot and has not yet been found. Police described him as around 30 years old, 1.85m tall and wearing a dark jacket with the hood pulled up. The shooting has sparked a city-wide manhunt, with police saying enquiries were also being made in other countries. The 29-year-old man who accompanied the two victims, but who escaped unharmed, is being questioned as a witness.