Shoot in SikhTemple

VIENNA - Sikhs brandishing knives and a pistol attacked two preachers to a rival temple in Vienna in a brawl which left one of the victims died Monday and at least 15 others wounded, police said. A confrontation broke out later in northern India.

According to witnesses, a group of men with beards and turbans attacked religious leaders at the temple in the Austrian capital on Sunday and moved their followers to defend them.

The preachers were among the six people who suffered serious injuries and were identified by Indian diplomats and police and Niranjan Sant Rama Nand Das.

Both were first described in a satisfactory state after operations by gunshot wounds. But a police officer who refused to identify himself on the phone, in line with Austrian custom, said Monday that the beginning of the statement of Nand, 57 subsequently worsened and he died shortly after midnight.

Spokesman Michael Takacs Police earlier said the scene was "like a battlefield." Six suspects are in custody, more arrests possible, "he says.

Mohnder Ram, a stalwart who said he had lived in Vienna for decades and has attended services at the temple every Sunday, said he is managed by the followers of Shri Guru Ravida, 14th century founder of a Sikh sect called Dera Sach Khand.

In India, fighting between Sikhs and followers of the main guru erupted in the northern city of Jalandhar several hours after the shock of Vienna, in what residents there described as a reaction to the apparent body body in the Austrian capital. Sanjiv Kalra, a senior police officer in Jalandhar, said the demonstrators had set fire to a number of vehicles and erected several roadblocks throughout the city. It gave no other details.

Witnesses spoke in Vienna, chaos.

"Everyone was praying, and then he started with knives and a pistol," said Singh Nermal, barefoot, shirt bloodied and his head bandaged from what he said was a knife wound.

Ram, 72, said: "I heard four or five shots in the temple. "People started screaming, crying like children were running out.

"It was like war. There was a lot of blood everywhere. "

Ram also spoke of "blood everywhere," adding: "People have been beaten with a knife and stabbed.

BIML Lalka, who lives in an apartment in ground floor in front of the building housing the temple, said she saw seven or eight men with long beards and dark blue and orange turbans fleeing the building.

It is not clear whether some of the weapons used were kirpans, the ceremonial daggers worn by Sikhs. Police said kirpans May legally be worn by Sikhs in Austria.

Takacs, spokesman for the police, said six people in a serious condition, four were "definitely the perpetrators." The most serious injuries were caused by gunshots to the abdomen and head.

The possibility that not only the aggressors, but also some of the faithful were armed was under investigation, "said Takacs. He denied reports that church leaders had asked in vain for police protection after threats by phone last week, saying such requests have been received.

Segall Bernhard medical services in Vienna said that one of the most seriously injured had to be resuscitated several times on the site. He described the injuries as of Indian origin and between 30 and 50 years.

According to witnesses, the perpetrators were Sikh fundamentalists of a higher caste, who had accused any of preachers to be disrespectful of the Holy Book. Indian news reports said the attackers were incensed that one of the preachers was given a ceremony seen as a shawl Sikh high honor.

Ram said about 400 people were in service during the brawl broke out in the temple in a residential building of the working class district of Vienna. Police, the number between 150 and 300.

Four ambulances and three helicopters for medical transport of victims to hospitals.

The temple is located in Rudolfsheim-Vienna, the capital of the 15th arrondissement, near Westbahnhof, Vienna is one of the main train stations. Police cordoned off the area.

The sect Dera Sach Khand includes most Sikhs belonging to the lower caste Dalits.

There are several of these Deras in the northern state of Punjab. Although there are disagreements between the Deras and Sikh religious leaders, violent clashes are rare.

Sikhs comprise less than 2 percent of India, 1.1 billion people, the vast majority of them are Hindus.