Woman out of danger after knife attack in Upper Austria

A 30-year-old woman is out of danger after being stabbed several times in Mettmach, a municipality in the Ried im Innkreis district, ORF reported. Police are investigating her 37-year-old Romanian partner on suspicion of attempted murder.

The man was questioned by the State Criminal Police Office on Saturday. Investigators currently believe he attacked the Polish woman out of jealousy, according to prosecutor Alois Ebner.

The couple had been in a long-term relationship that was repeatedly interrupted. They argued on Friday morning at their shared workplace, a horse farm in Mettmach. The man had allegedly consumed a large amount of alcohol, and his alcohol level was measured at more than two per mille that morning.

During the argument, he allegedly took a work knife normally used to slit open hay bales and stabbed the woman several times in the back. She fled across a meadow and stopped a driver from St. Johann am Walde, whose pregnant wife was also in the car.

The man followed her with the knife. When he tried to enter the car, the driver intervened, and a brief scuffle followed, according to the prosecutor. The driver managed to shut the door and drive away after calling the police. The attacker then stabbed the car’s rear window with the knife.

Police arrested the man shortly afterwards. He did not resist and initially told investigators that he had wanted to kill his partner. During Saturday’s questioning, however, he softened that statement and claimed he could not remember the attack because he had been heavily intoxicated the previous day.

The woman was first treated at Ried Hospital before being taken by emergency helicopter to Kepler University Hospital. She is responsive and out of danger, according to the prosecutor, and is expected to be questioned next week.

The woman’s two children, aged eight and 10, were in the horse farm’s residential building and did not witness the attack. They are currently staying with their grandfather in Poland.

The prosecutor’s office has applied for the man to be placed in pretrial detention.