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Police forces at the crime scene in Eschenau, Austria: “Beastly and hideous cases”
Photo: Doku-Nö / dpa
In Austria, an 84-year-old woman was apparently killed by her partner.
The 93-year-old is said to have shot his partner on Monday, according to the police in the state of Lower Austria.
An acquaintance of the couple called the emergency number and the emergency services found the woman lifeless in her home in Eschenau.
The suspect was taken to hospital with life-threatening injuries that he said were self-inflicted.
This means that five women and one girl died violently in Austria within just a few days.
On Friday morning, a man is said to have killed his 13-year-old daughter and his 51-year-old wife in Vienna.
He's on the run.
On Friday evening, Vienna police arrested a 27-year-old Afghan man who is suspected of stabbing three women in a brothel.
According to the police, the asylum seeker basically admitted the crime.
Such violent crimes against women are also known as femicide.
The most common form is the killing of women by partners or ex-partners (read more about the term here).
In Austria, the cases have now triggered a renewed debate about the protection of women.
The conservative Interior Minister Gerhard Karner spoke on Monday of “bestial and hideous cases” and referred to measures such as the introduction of violence clinics.
Meri Disoski, the women's spokesperson for the co-governing Green Party, however, called for a whole-of-society approach to combat violence against women.
According to the UN, 89,000 women and girls will have been killed worldwide in 2022.
That was the highest level in 20 years.
More than half of these crimes were committed by family members or (ex-)partners (read more about this here).
jpz/dpa