Austrian police reported on Monday the arrest of a 54-year-old man who attacked two social workers with pepper spray after they discovered him living illegally with a woman and six young children in a private wine cellar in northeastern Austria.
Police in Lower Austria were still attempting to identify six youngsters ranging in age from 7 months to 5 years.
Last week, residents in Obritz, a small town near the Czech border, notified local authorities that an undocumented family was residing in a wine cellar.
“Residents sometimes heard children’s voices in the basement,” Erich Greil, vice-mayor of the town, told ORF. As soon as (local residents) approached, total hush ensued.
According to the police, when two social workers arrived on Thursday to check on the children, the father attacked them with pepper spray and blocked the cellar door.
The social workers called the police, who arrested the individual. The police found a 40-year-old woman and six children in the man’s cellar, who they believe to be his wife and children.
According to reports, the father informed authorities that the children were born in England. The police reported that the children were not properly registered in Austria and that they were attempting to verify their identities.
The police officer added that the youngsters were brought to a local hospital and that they had not been abused or wounded. Currently, they are in the care of social services.
The Evening Standard reported that the accused man was a former IT specialist from London, but officials were unable to identify him. According to the news source, the wine cellar had access to water and power but was ruled unfit for human occupancy.
The man is a Reichsbuerger, or Reich Citizen, according to the local newspaper. Extreme right-wing conspiracy theorists argue that the Allied powers’ partitioning of Germany after World War II and the subsequent construction of democratic states were unconstitutional, and that the old Reich still exists.
A Lower Austrian police spokesperson refused to validate the man’s supposed Reich Citizens membership.
More than two dozen members of the organisation were arrested in Germany last month on suspicion of a right-wing extremist plot to topple the German government.
»Man detained after finding a mother and six children residing in a wine cellar«