A Tunisian man has brutally murdered an elderly couple in Austria in what is being identified as an act of islamist terrorism. This happened as Austria decided not to use its military to block the flood of Middle Eastern refugees from entering the country.

Austria has suffered its first Islamist attack after an elderly couple were beaten and stabbed to death by a Tunisian man last week, the government has said.

An Hildegard Sch., 85, died after having her throat slit in the northern city of Linz on Friday while husband Siegfried, 87, was stabbed and beaten to death with a stick covered in screws.

The news comes as the country shelved plans to send 750 troops to its border with Italy to head off a potential influx of migrants.

Interior Minister Wolfgang Sobotka said on Wednesday that the 54-year-old Tunisian ‘had an Islamist background’ and ‘is clearly a radicalised Muslim’.

The killer was not a recent refugee and had been living in Austria since 1989 but authorities indicate that he does have ties to radical islamists.

It was initially thought the suspect, who has been living in Austria since 1989, acted out of a political motive – wrongly believing the elderly couple to be involved with Austria’s far-right Freedom Party.

But following a search of the Tunisian man’s home and electronic devices, investigators concluded the killings were related to radical Islam.

Given its historical significance, it’s surprising that this is being reported as the first islamist terror attack on Austrian soil in recent years. In 1683, the Ottoman Empire laid siege to Vienna, Austria but were routed by troops led by Jan Sobieski of Poland. The crushing defeat occurred on September 12 and may have had some significance in the timing of the World Trade Center attacks in 2001.