Police have activated the safety and security measures in the two Austrian states of Salzburg and Lower Austria as a precautionary measure after a suspect was arrested in connection with an unattended vehicle in Vienna late on Friday.
While the department has not ordered large scale evacuations of the city and the adjoining towns, police and emergency services asked residents to stay indoors and remain vigilant. It was not immediately clear whether the incident was an act of terrorism.
The lockdown began shortly after midnight at the end of a public tour that takes in nearly 2,500 buildings that dot the city. After confirming a no-go zone for a short time, police re-approached the tour from a different location, though it was still unclear why it had been turned away.
Monday, the website for Oberpfalz und Sauerland, a state-owned regional rail authority which operates the Salzburg-Wallenberg passenger railroad, announced no operating operations had yet resumed.
Separately, police across Austria were on heightened alert following the huge truck rampage through a Berlin Christmas market last month. Christmas markets in Vienna and other cities are scheduled to open in coming days.
Austria stands to lose 40 million euros ($46 million) after failing to limit access to the country’s southwestern border before the 2017 West Berlin terror attack, according to recent parliamentary testimony from Interior Minister Herbert Kickl.