A MAN arrested after six children had been rescued from a cellar in a distant village in Austria has been pictured for the primary time.
Conspiracy theorist and alleged Holocaust denier Tom Landon was seized by police after reportedly attacking social staff with pepper spray within the Austrian village of Obritz.
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Conspiracist Tom Landon has been arrested by Austrian copsCredit: Twitter
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Cops stormed a property within the Austrian village of ObritzCredit: ORF
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The home had a number of CCTV cameras installedCredit: ORF
A girl and 6 children had been found residing in a wine cellar below the property together with a number of weapons.
It’s reported that the eight had been residing within the cellar for the previous 9 months however had been beforehand residing in London.
Officers consider they had been residing in a community of tunnels beneath Obritz, a tiny village some 60 miles north of the Austrian capital Vienna, near the border with the Czech Republic.
It’s believed that he “wished a cellar for every little one,” in keeping with Obritz’s deputy mayor Erich Greil.
The 54-year-old was, till not too long ago, working in IT in London, The Instances reported, quoting Austrian officers.
Cops try to hint data on the youngsters, none of whom had been registered in Austria.
Authorities officers had been tipped off by neighbours, who claimed that they had heard kids’s voices coming from the constructing, which had plenty of CCTV cameras.
Nonetheless, every time anybody approached the constructing, it went all of the sudden quiet.
After Landon allegedly attacked the 2 officers with pepper spray throughout a routine inspection, cops had been known as.
After they stormed the cellar, they discovered Landon barricaded inside together with a 40-year-old girl and 6 kids, aged between seven months and 5 years.
A number of weapons had been additionally found within the cellar, which had been fitted with doorways and home windows however was deemed unfit for human habitation.
Each Landon and the girl had been launched after being questioned by authorities, however all the kids residing on the property have reportedly been taken into care.
He additionally wished to purchase our cellar final yr however no person actually knew something about what was happening
Neighbour
He’s believed to be a “doomsday prepper”, the place one builds their life round getting ready for a “main catastrophe or cataclysmic occasion”.
Landon had reportedly self-published plenty of books denouncing Austria’s authorities.
One in every of his books, Rote Sau, which means Crimson Sow and revealed in 2019, gave his tackle as East Finchley in north London.
Different ebook titles in German translated as The Judas Precept and Soiled Justice.
He informed cops he deliberate to remain within the cellar, which he reportedly purchased by a British firm, for a day or two longer.
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Officers had been reportedly attacked with pepper spray on an inspectionCredit: ORF
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A few of Landon’s self-published booksCredit: Twitter
Landon is listed at Corporations Home as being the director of two corporations, considered one of which has since been dissolved.
Greil informed The Sunday Instances: “He is not from right here and has solely been [in] Obritz for a short while.
“Earlier than that, he apparently lived in England. I believe he labored within the IT sector.”
An Austrian police supply mentioned: “With Interpol we’re working to determine the youngsters who we consider might have been born within the UK.
“The person and his spouse, who’s British, had actually lived within the UK and had connections there.”
Landon has ties to the Austrian department of the far-right German Reichsburger motion, which embraces plenty of conspiracy theories.
The best-wing extremist motion believes that the German empire nonetheless exists because it did previous to World Conflict II.
Austria’s Kronen Zeitung newspaper reported: “The presumed Reich citizen is thought to officers, was firmly satisfied of weird conspiracy theories and had apparently utterly ‘drifted away’ for the reason that Ukraine conflict.”
One native resident mentioned: “In fact we knew the suspect. He additionally wished to purchase our cellar final yr however no person actually knew something about what was happening.”
Landon can be mentioned to have written a musical about Austrian rock star Falco, identified for his 1985 hit Rock Me Amadeus.
Falco was killed in a automotive crash within the Dominican Republic and Landon, who was residing within the Caribbean nation on the time, claimed to have discovered the physique and mentioned that the singer’s true reason behind demise was coated up.
Comparisons have been drawn between Landon’s case and the sickening crimes of Josef Fritzl, the Austrian man who saved his daughter Elisabeth locked in a cellar for twenty-four years, throughout which era she was compelled to have his seven kids.
Nonetheless, there is no such thing as a purpose to consider the youngsters, on this case, had been mistreated, mentioned Greil, who noticed the household strolling round within the village two weeks earlier.