Conscript fatally shot in scuffle at Austrian barracks

BERLIN (AP) — A conscript was killed and an officer hurt during a scuffle at a military barracks in Austria on Friday that resulted in several shots being fired, the country’s defense ministry said.

The incident happened shortly before 7 a.m. at the barracks next to an airfield in Wiener Neustadt, south of Vienna. The 20-year-old conscript, who started his military service in September and had been serving as a guard there since mid-October, threatened his fellow soldiers during a changing of the guard and physically attacked the officer in charge, a defense ministry statement said.

In the course of the scuffle, several shots were fired and the conscript was fatally wounded, it added. The officer, an experienced 54-year-old second lieutenant who had been at the barracks since 2007, was taken to a hospital with injuries but didn’t have gunshot wounds.

The defense ministry said authorities were working to determine what exactly happened.