Police investigate desecration of 101 graves at Vienna's main cemetery
Austrian capital's largest graveyard vandalized, 25 Jewish graves destroyed. Police examine possible DNA evidence, seeks two perpetrators
Austrian authorities said Friday they were searching for the vandals responsible for desecrating 101 graves at Vienna's main cemetery.
According to investigators, the vandalism occurred overnight, and that 25 of the graves were in the Jewish sector of the cemetery.
Police said tombstones were toppled, iron crosses were bent and lanterns were destroyed atop the graves at the Vienna Central Cemetery, the Austrian capital's largest graveyard.
Investigators were examining footprints and possible DNA evidence at the scene, in hopes of tracking down those responsible, authorities said in a statement. They said the evidence at the scene suggested two people were involved.
Several Jewish cemeteries in Europe were desecrated over the past few months. In October, 64 tombstones were destroyed in the Jewish cemetery in Siberia; while in August, 100 headstones in a Jewish cemetery in southern Poland were spray painted with swastikas and Nazi slogans.
