Indian fires at Vienna police during raids

The Austrian police today arrested an Indian national after he allegedly opened fire at them during a raid in connection with the last month's killing of a visiting Sikh preacher at a local Gurdwara in Vienna.

"The arrested Indian man fired at Wega and Cobra special forces officers who searched nine flats and houses today," Vienna police spokesman Michael Takacs said.

The officers were investigating last month's shootings at the Ravi Dass Gurdwara in Vienna-Rudolfsheim in which 57-year-old Sant Rama Anand, the leader of Dera Sachkhand Ballan, was killed.

"The man was immediately overpowered and taken into custody," Takacs was quoted as saying by the Austrian Times.

Meanwhile, the suspect who was released from preventive detention on June 5 has also been taken into custody again.

The raids at properties across the capital began this afternoon as authorities tried to collect more evidence as investigations into the shootings on May 24.

Takacs said police did not know how the man was connected with the case and why he fired at the commandos.

He said police seized weapons and knives and confiscated the car of one of the suspects, a red Nissan Almera, adding more evidence in the case had been found in the vehicle.