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Subway robbery in Vienna: 16-year-old beats sleeping victim!
A 16-year-old Syrian is wanted after robbing a sleeping man in Vienna. The perpetrators fled with bank cards.
Subway robbery in Vienna: 16-year-old beats sleeping victim!
In February 2025, Vienna experienced another incident of juvenile crime that put the city on alert. At Stephansplatz, three teenagers knocked down a sleeping man and stole his wallet. This is evident from several reports addressing the increasing threat posed by young offenders. The victim, a 53-year-old man, had fallen asleep on the train platform in the early hours of February 15 when the attackers woke him up and violently hit him in the face. They stole his wallet and then fled in an unknown direction to buy cigarettes worth around 250 euros with the stolen ATM cards, as [Kosmo](https://www.kosmo.at/u-bahn-attacke-trio-pruegelt-auf- Schlafenden-ein-fuer-zigaretten/) reports.
The Vienna police were able to identify one of the suspected perpetrators, a 16-year-old Syrian citizen, after evaluating the surveillance cameras. Several charges have been filed against the teenager, including robbery, misuse of cashless means of payment, document suppression and multiple burglaries. Despite these accusations, the suspect remains at large and denied the allegations, claiming that his accomplices were alone. The search for the two other perpetrators continues, as Puls24 reports.
Rapid increase in juvenile crime
This incident is not isolated, but is in the context of an alarming increase in youth crime in Vienna. According to current police reporting statistics, the number of reported robbery offenses rose by 18.1% to 1,394 cases in 2024. What is particularly striking is that more than half of the young perpetrators (57.1%) come from abroad. In 2024, a total of 14,804 suspects under the age of 18 were reported, representing an increase of 33% compared to previous years. This worrying development suggests that society is facing a major challenge as younger and younger offenders choose increasingly violent forms of crime, according to Heute.
In order to address this problem, an interdisciplinary “Child and Youth Crime” working group was set up in Vienna in 2024 to deal with prevention measures and support the police in their work. These measures are urgently needed to effectively counteract the rising numbers and the associated violence.