Multiple attackers open fire in Vienna terror incident

Heavily armed police have swarmed the city centre and urged the public to hide inside restaurants and shops.

One piece of footage appears to show a police officer being shot by one of the assailants. Other video shows injured people bleeding outside a restaurant and being treated by shocked patrons.

Vienna's chief rabbi, Schlomo Hofmeister, told British radio station LBC that he came out of the synagogue and onto the street after hearing gunshots and then saw men shooting at guests of bars and restaurants.

"The gunmen were running around shooting at least 100 rounds or even more in front of our building. People were jumping and running, falling over the tables, running inside the bars, followed by the gunmen also running inside the bars. We heard shots all over. Later on when the police arrived...we heard them asking whether there were any injuries inside and people shouted out of the various bars 'yes we have two here', or 'yes we have three here'."

He suggested the hunt for the attackers may have prevented paramedics from getting to the injured.

Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz has ordered the military to help respond and said the attack was "definitely" terrorism. He said police were investigating the motive and anti-Semitism could not be ruled out.

He revealed that the police officer who was shot was being treated in hospital where he was expected to recover.

The Chancellor confirmed some people had been arrested and disarmed but several remained on the run.

The attackers on the run were armed with automatic guns and "professionally prepared", added.

"I hope in the next few hours we can end the danger and public life can resume tomorrow morning. But I ask all people who are going to sleep now in the morning, before you leave the house, to urgently check the news."

Kurz confirmed Tuesday’s sitting of Parliament had been cancelled.

Austrian Interior Minister Karl Nehammer earlier warned several armed, coordinated attackers were moving around the city and advised even residents outside Vienna to be wary and stay at home.

Nehammer encouraged all families in Vienna to keep their children at home on Tuesday local time and said authorities would hold another press conference at 6am, local time, (4pm AEDT) to advise whether it was safe for residents to leave their homes.

He said his thoughts were with the victims.

“When one of us is attacked, all of us are attacked,” Nehammer said.

The shooting took place hours before the midnight start of a nationwide lockdown, one of several being imposed in Europe to stop the spread of the coronavirus.

The area where the shooting took place is packed with bars and Vienna's main temple, the Seitenstettengasse synagogue. There were initial fears that the synagogue may have been the target of the assault.

The president of the Jewish Religious Community in Austria, Oskar Deutsch, said that the shooting had occurred "in the immediate vicinity" of the temple but that it was closed at the time.

Gerhard Puerstl, head of Vienna police, said of the 15 injured members of the public in hospital, it was too early to give a prognosis on the seven who were seriously injured.

A spokesman for Vienna city police, Harald Soeroes, said police would spend the next hours searching for several co-attackers who remained at-large.

"It’s very, very important that every Vienna resident stays at home and observes public information. If you are in a location now, please stay there," Soeroes said.

Franz Ruf, chief of public safety for Vienna police, said hundreds of soldiers from terrorism and specialist teams were working with police in inner-city Vienna where barracades would remain in place for the foreseeable future.

Ruf said Austria was working with neighbouring countries to establish “strong controls” on its borders amid the possibility the attackers would flee Austria.

“It is still a very challenging situation,” he said at a press conference at about 12.30am local time.

The shooting has occurred amid heightened tensions in Europe. A teacher was beheaded in an attack outside his school in Paris 16 days ago and last week a man beheaded a church worshipper and stabbed two others to death inside the Notre-Dame Basilica in Nice.

"We French share the shock and grief of the Austrian people struck this evening by an attack in the heart of their capital, Vienna," said French President Emmanuel Macron.

"After France, a friendly country is attacked. This is our Europe. Our enemies must know who they are dealing with. We will not give up."

Vienna mayor Michael Ludwig confirmed one member of the public had been shot dead. He refused to elaborate on the details as the family was in the process of being informed.

Ludwig also suggested a perpetrator has been arrested and told public broadcaster ORF that police were interviewing him in an attempt to gather information on the whereabouts of the other attackers.

The mayor said it was essential Vienna residents stayed home to avoid distracting police and authorities were continuing to receive "endless information" about the attack that needed to be verified.

Police urged the public to not share footage of the attack on social media, fearing it may assist the attacker. They asked witnesses to upload the footage to a special link.